Bridging the STEM Lab Gap
A team of 15 engineering students and faculty at ITESO University in Guadalajara, Mexico, in collaboration with the IEEE Guadalajara Section through the EPICS in IEEE initiative, has developed RoboMeshA—a mobile educational platform designed to bring hands-on robotics and AI learning to high schools lacking specialized laboratory infrastructure.
Many high schools across Guadalajara have students and educators passionate about STEM, yet they often lack the capital to equip specialized computer facilities or engineering labs. Funded by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE-RAS) and coordinated by IEEE Educational Activities, the RoboMeshA project solves this bottleneck by packaging full-stack hardware and software into a unified device that operates as a portable laboratory.
Seamless Operation and Multidisciplinary Integration
In terms of user operation, students do not need to install complex software packages or perform system configurations. They simply power on the robot and connect directly via a web browser. Users can steer the robot manually or engage autonomous modes to observe its path planning, object recognition, and obstacle avoidance in real time. According to faculty advisor Jorge A. Lizarraga, the platform integrates mechanical design, embedded systems, automatic control engineering, computer vision, and AI into a cohesive framework.
Student team member Fernando Vidal Luna noted that chassis design represented the primary engineering hurdle. The team had to balance stability, rigidity, and weight distribution while ensuring electronic components were fully protected yet easily accessible for maintenance, diagnostics, and hardware upgrades. The user interface was likewise streamlined to enable students of diverse skill levels to start experimenting immediately upon connecting to the robot's local network.
Field Testing and Future Scaling
The ITESO team has manufactured two functional prototypes and deployed them for field testing at two secondary institutions: CETI Colomos and Prepa ITESO. The team is currently completing a modular communication framework that allows up to four RoboMeshA units to coordinate and operate in tandem for collaborative robotics research and live demonstrations.
Previously, the project's research findings were presented at the Jesuit University System Engineering Conference in May. Project lead Luis Fernando Luque-Vega expects the RoboMeshA platform to be adopted by schools and IEEE student branches on an international scale.