Transcript MoRob – Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox

MoRob – Modular Educational
Robotic Toolbox
Uwe Gerecke
Project Partners
• L3S Hannover
(Principal Investigator: Bernardo Wagner)
• KTH Stockholm, Centre for Autonomous Systems
(Principal Investigator: Henrik Christensen)
• Stanford University, Robotics Laboratory
(Principal Investigator: Oussama Khatib)
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
MoRob – this is about autonomous robots
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
What is MoRob about? (I)
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recent years, autonomous mobile robots have..
become a very popular topic
gained high visibility in media (TV, newspapers, internet)
been used increasingly in research, entertainment and
industry
Going along with this..
• increasing number of university robotics courses
• increasing number of dissertation projects
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
What is MoRob about? (II)
Universities need robot platforms which
• are flexible and modular
• can easily be customized to the requirements of different
subjects and research goals
MoRob project aims:
• develop such a platform
• provide standard set of robot control modules + teaching units
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
Educational Robotics
Robots can be used as a tool in many different disciplines
• Teaching/Demonstrating
• Exercises/Labs
• Research projects (PhD. level)
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
Why do we need MoRob?
Common problems in educational robotics:
• Use “primitive” system
 limited platform
• Construction of own system
 effort requires many resources
(implementation, maintenance)
We do not want teachers and students to re-invent the wheel all
over again!
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
What about Lego?
LEGO Mindstorms:
• Provides a flexible and easy to use platform
• Reaches its limitations very easily
(physically, programming power, sensors,
scalability, etc.)
So: Lego is not the best platform to be used in advanced
courses.
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
MoRob - Project Aim
Flexible platform, vehicle for experimentation in a number of courses:
• Programming
• Signal Processing
• Control Theory
• Pattern Recognition
• etc.
The platform should be
• easily configurable for a particular course
• interfaced to standard educational tools such as MATLAB, Java and
C/C++
• sharable across a number of institutions
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
Characteristics of MoRob Platform (I)
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Scalable performance
Modular setup
Flexible interfaces
Easy configuration
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
Characteristics of MoRob Platform (II)
• Flexible architecture which considers mechanical, electrical and software
interfaces
• Layered architecture that allows interfacing to the system at all levels from
motors to advanced behaviours (comprehensive API required)
• Comprise a variety of basic components to allow for construction of basic
mobility systems (e.g. sensor modules)
• Library of standard modules for navigation, detection of obstacles, etc.
• Simple set of interfaces to be used with MATLAB and Java
• Comprehensive suite of documentation
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
Workplan (Research Tasks Hannover)
• Development of a Scalable Processing Box (SPB) for easy
experimentation with any kind of robotic platform
• Development of a demonstrator module for teaching robotics
classes (navigation)
• Development of course material in real-time programming and
systems engineering
• Application of SPB in the education of Ph.D. students for
research purposes
• Provision of an Internet framework to control the robot
platform and access course materials
• Evaluation of results
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
Benefits of MoRob
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Supply of an educational platform
Support teaching by reusable and sustaining material
Improve student learning
Increase the attractiveness of learning through problem-based
and experimental learning (learning by doing)
• Increase the attractiveness of teaching by better and faster
integration of research
• Initiate faculty collaboration and exchange within the
engineering and computer science departments
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002
Demos
Uwe Gerecke
MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox
L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002