EDLRIS: A European Driving License for Robots and Intelligent Systems

This article presents a novel educational project aiming at the development and implementation of a professional, standardized, internationally accepted system for training and certifying teachers, school students and young people in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics. In recent years, AI and Robotics have become major topics with a huge impact not only on our everyday life but also on the working environment. Hence, sound knowledge about principles and concepts of AI and Robotics are key skills for this century. Nonetheless, hardly any systematic approaches exist that focus on teaching principles of intelligent systems at K-12 level, addressing students as well as teachers who act as multipliers. In order to meet this challenge, the European Driving License for Robots and Intelligent Systems—EDLRIS was developed. It is based on a number of previously implemented and evaluated projects and comprises teaching curricula and training modules for AI and Robotics, following a competency-based, blended learning approach. Additionally, a certification system proves peoples’ acquired competencies. After developing the training and certification system, the first 32 trainer and trainee courses with a total of 445 participants have been implemented and evaluated. By applying this innovative approach—a standardized and widely recognized training and certification system for AI and Robotics at K-12 level for both high school teachers and students—we envision to foster AI/Robotics literacy on a broad basis.