morob – modular educational robotic toolbox uwe gerecke

MoRob – Modular Educational Robotic

Toolbox

Uwe Gerecke

L3S Open Day 4th Dec. 2002

Uwe Gerecke MoRob - Modular Educational Robotic Toolbox

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)



MoRob – this is about autonomous robots



What is MoRob about? (I)

In 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



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



Educational Robotics

Robots can be used as a tool in many different disciplines

• Teaching/Demonstrating

• Exercises/Labs

• Research projects (PhD. level)



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!



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.



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



Characteristics of MoRob Platform (I)

• Scalable performance• Modular setup • Flexible interfaces• Easy configuration



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



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



Benefits of MoRob

• 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



Demos

morob – modular educational robotic toolbox uwe gerecke

Documents

best platform

standard educational

number of courses

system effort

easy experimentation

advanced courses

research purposes provision

autonomous robotswhat