Robots are Coming to Florida International University

The biggest problem with Dale Gomez’s distance learning class was lack of interaction with his students in China.

Gomez, IT Director at the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Florida International University (FIU), found the solution to that problem at a conference last spring: a telepresence robot.

Since then, FIU has invested in a telepresence robot solution from Double Robotics to increase interactivity between real-time students in Miami and distance learning students in China.

“One of the things we’ve been lacking with our transmissions to China and distance learning was that there was not a lot of interaction going on,” Gomez says. “We kind of figured the reason behind that was the fact that students at the far end weren’t really being stimulated to be part of the class.”

After purchasing the robot, Gomez brought it over to China; the robot would help Gomez simultaneously teach his Hospitality Information Technology class in Miami and China.

Gomez says that even though the robot has only been used for a couple of months, students’ responses to it have been positive.

“It really woke the students up,” he says. “It really gave them the sense that the instructor was inside the room…It really stimulated the learning experience for the students on that far end.”

How It Works

FIU’s four-foot tall telepresence robot features a “segue with an iPad;” the iPad connects to devices with which end users, like Gomez, can control the robot.

Once the iPad is connected to the end user’s device, he or she can manipulate the robot to go and do whatever they want in the distance learning location.

The iPad also runs two cameras; the forward facing camera views the distance learning class, and the back camera, which has a periscope on it, views the segue wheels to avoid roadblocks.

Gomez says the robot also runs off of Apple T.V., which makes his distance learning lectures more interactive.