A web-based teleoperative mobile robotic system : Master of Engineering in Information Engineering at Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand

With the rapid development of internet technology, it becomes real that human beings can access, modify and control a remote hardware device via internet connection. Such remote operations can replace the human to be present at a dangerous or unreachable place or can make as many as possible users to access the hardware in different places at a low cost. The thesis research was aimed at developing a web based mobile robot control framework for education purpose. It should be composed of a mobile robot. Http server, dynamic user interface and video server. With it users can view and control the real robot via a normal web browser and can choose to run either simulation or the real robot. This is done by setting up operational parameters via a friendly GUI (graphic user interface). Users also can upload and compile their own C code to control the robot and get back the running results. The main objectives of this thesis research are hardware upgrading for Nomadic Super Scout mobile robot and web based php programming. For the first objective, the onboard PC was replaced by a laptop that is remotely placed and connected to the robot control system via Bluetooth wireless. The Nserver for robot simulation was set up in the Linux operating environment. For the second objective, the software programming was focused on building a web control platform which should be user friendly. An Apache server was developed where PHP program was used for the user interface. The main advantage of using PHP is that it does not need to install or download any software or script to get access to the remote robot via a normal web browser on any operation like windows or Linux. The web-based mobile robot system was tested using two different cases. One case demonstrated how the user specifies a set of motion parameters of the robot that is programmed to perform a wall-following behaviour. The other demonstrated how the user uploads a collision avoidance program to run the robot that is placed among obstacles. Both case studies were performed in real environments and the results proved the success of the developed web-based robotic system

Integrating mobile robotics and vision with undergraduate computer science

This paper describes the integration of robotics education into an undergraduate Computer Science curriculum. The proposed approach delivers mobile robotics as well as covering the closely related field of Computer Vision, and is directly linked to the research conducted at the authors’ institution. The paper describes the most relevant details of the module content and assessment strategy, paying particular attention to the practical sessions using Rovio mobile robots. The specific choices are discussed that were made with regard to the mobile platform, software libraries and lab environment. The paper also presents a detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of student results, including the correlation between student engagement and performance, and discusses the outcomes of this experience

Designing and implementation of robot mapping algorithm for mobile robot

.A mobile robot is an automatic machine that is capable of movement in any given environment [1]. The Capabilities of Mobile Robot(s) are: Moving around based on the user’s input, Avoiding obstacle in front of it and Calculating the path. The Criteria of Mobile Robot: Desktop size. A robot that can evolve on the desk near the computer improves drastically the student efficiency during experimentation. Wide range of possibilities from an engineering and educational point of view. To exploit this tool in various fields of education such as signal processing, automatic control, embedded programming, or distributed intelligent systems design, the robot should provide a wide set of functionalities in its basic version. User friendly. The user interface has to be simple, efficient, and intuitive. This is an important point for the acceptance of the system by the students. The broad introduction in engineering classes requires a large number of robots. Knowing that the budget of many schools is constant or decreasing, this is only feasible by reducing the cost of an individual robot. Open information. This robot has to be shared among professors, laboratories, schools and universities. An open source hardware/software development model is an effective way to achieve this goal

A gentle transition from Java programming to Web Services using XML-RPC

Exposing students to leading edge vocational areas of relevance such as Web Services can be difficult. We show a lightweight approach by embedding a key component of Web Services within a Level 3 BSc module in Distributed Computing. We present a ready to use collection of lecture slides and student activities based on XML-RPC. In addition we show that this material addresses the central topics in the context of web services as identified by Draganova (2003)

Experiences on a motivational learning approach for robotics in undergraduate courses

This paper presents an educational experience carried out in robotics undergraduate courses from two different degrees: Computer Science and Industrial Engineering, having students with diverse capabilities and motivations. The experience compares two learning strategies for the practical lessons of such courses: one relies on code snippets in Matlab to cope with typical robotic problems like robot motion, localization, and mapping, while the second strategy opts for using the ROS framework for the development of algorithms facing a competitive challenge, e.g. exploration algorithms. The obtained students’ opinions were instructive, reporting, for example, that although they consider harder to master ROS when compared to Matlab, it might be more useful in their (robotic related) professional careers, which enhanced their disposition to study it. They also considered that the challenge-exercises, in addition to motivate them, helped to develop their skills as engineers to a greater extent than the skeleton-code based ones. These and other conclusions will be useful in posterior courses to boost the interest and motivation of the students.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Digital Systems Teaching and Research (DSTR) Robot: A Flexible Platform for Education and Applied Research

The DSTR (pronounced “Disaster”) robot has a strong history of being adaptable to different user’s needs, and there are many opportunities ahead that indicate that the sky, quite literally, is not the limit for this robust platform. This paper provides a historical perspective on the development of the DSTR robot as a collaborative design developed by the Mobile Integrated Solutions Laboratory (MISL) at Texas A&M University and ASEP 4X4 Inc. Texas Instruments has been a major partner in the integration of the control electronics, and Texas Space Technology Applications and Research (T STAR) LLC has played a significant role in the propagation of the DSTR robot as an adaptable applied research/education/STEM outreach platform. The paper will present examples of the strong industry-academic relationships that allow the DSTR robot to be utilized in a multitude of experiential learning environments. In addition to a number of STEM outreach activities, the DSTR robots are being used in the Introduction to Engineering course at Blinn College and in the Freshman Engineering curriculum at Texas A&M University. DSTRs have also been selected by NASA scientists as a low-cost lunar sample collector. The paper will also discuss the newly developed DSTR-E (DSTR Engineering) unit which requires students to perform several engineering tasks during the build process. The paper will also include the lessons learned from initial design through its transfer to the private sector for commercialization and future plans.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Mobile Robot Lab Project to Introduce Engineering Students to Fault Diagnosis in Mechatronic Systems

This document is a self-archiving copy of the accepted version of the paper. Please find the final published version in IEEEXplore: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TE.2014.2358551This paper proposes lab work for learning fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) in mechatronic systems. These skills are important for engineering education because FDD is a key capability of competitive processes and products. The intended outcome of the lab work is that students become aware of the importance of faulty conditions and learn to design FDD strategies for a real system. To this end, the paper proposes a lab project where students are requested to develop a discrete event dynamic system (DEDS) diagnosis to cope with two faulty conditions in an autonomous mobile robot task. A sample solution is discussed for LEGO Mindstorms NXT robots with LabVIEW. This innovative practice is relevant to higher education engineering courses related to mechatronics, robotics, or DEDS. Results are also given of the application of this strategy as part of a postgraduate course on fault-tolerant mechatronic systems.This work was supported in part by the Spanish CICYT under Project DPI2011-22443