Meeting the educational challenge in micro/nanorobotics for biomedical applications

We present the progress of our NSF CCLI project to design teaching materials on micro/nanorobotics for biomedical engineering students. We have developed a case study and a laboratory module, both of which are centered on a vitamin pill sized microrobot navigating in the human's GI tract. In particular, we built a simulation module in Webots 3D simulator, where the microrobot navigates along the GI tract and detects abnormality through an onboard camera. Using the case study and the laboratory module, we teach students building components of a microrobot, and basic behaviors for robot navigation and detection.