An excursion into the fascinating world of AI and robotics

Using the mini robot dogs was a wonderful opportunity to strengthen the team spirit and coordination skills of the pupils in class 5b. Firstly, Beatrix Altmeyer from the BTU College explained to the children with great patience and empathy why a dog was used as the motif for the robot. Using a 3D projector, she illustrated the most important characteristics of a dog and worked with the children to identify the most important similarities between the robot dogs Susi, Strolch and Pongo.

The children were then divided into groups. Dedicated BTU College Staff Members and a STEM ambassador and STEM scholarship holder trained the designated team leaders in handling the humanoid AI-supported robot dogs. The team leaders passed on what they had learnt to their classmates, and then it was off to the course. On an exciting journey, the children had to master four challenging stations together with the robots. They also expanded their knowledge in a quiz. The individual stations were real experiences. The pupils were asked to walk around objects with the robot dogs without touching or knocking them over. They had to let the robot dog cross a tunnel without coming into contact with the objects inside. Finally, they had to steer the robot dog over a seesaw without crashing and let it jump over the finish line.

Once all the stations had been successfully completed and the quiz questions answered correctly, the children received their official BTU robot dog driving licence. The agile robot dogs from the DLR_Schoool_Lab delighted the pupils as well as the entire primary school teaching staff and set new standards for learning, teaching and everyday life in the future. In addition to the exciting tasks on the course, the children were able to extensively test other impressive functions of the robot dogs.

The pupils were fascinated by the robot dogs' ability to jump, dance and even show gestures. The whole morning turned into a fantastic excursion into the fascinating world of artificial intelligence and robotics. The children not only gained valuable experience in dealing with robots, but were also sensitised to this future technology at an early stage.

On this day, the college team led by Kathrin Erdmann and Beatrix Altmeyer achieved something very special. They managed to awaken the children's enthusiasm for scientific and technical professions and prepare them for the digital future.