A HIGH FLEXIBLE MOBILE ROBOT PLATFORM USED IN INTERNATIONAL PROJECT

The paper presents the development and the use of a flexible robot platform that was especially designed for a 14 day international European workshop. The partner Universities have more than 10 years experience in running workshops in the field of embedded systems. By using inverted pendulums successfully for 8 years, they decided to use a new experimental demonstrator. During the last 2 years the University of Trier developed these robot platforms considering the special requirements of a 14 day workshop. Aspects of costs, free available software tools, easy to use hardware and the possibility of compact and high quality learning modules were taken into account. The system is modular in hard- and software and it allows interdisciplinary technical problems to be solved in every level of difficulty. All components (sensors and actuators) meet industrial standards. The whole system is modeled with Matlab and can be virtually controlled with a computer by using 3D animation. So the students can previously prepare themselves for the workshop by using computer simulation and animation. The robots were developed by 12 students from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering faculties. They were organized in interdisciplinary project groups. Most of them were students of the third year who already joint the international workshop. The robots were also produced by students with industrial production machines.
In 2010 the robots were used the first time in 3 countries during the international workshop ALICE (Advanced Logic in Control Engineering). Although the universities of the different placements prepared absolutely different learning modules, the first experience in education with this demonstrators were absolutely positive. In the Netherlands the students had to include different sensors to the robot such as an optical distance sensor or an ultrasonic sensor. They had to develop the interface electronics and the software to let the robots navigate autonomously. In Sweden the students had to drive the robots along predefined trajectories with high speed combined with high precision. In German the students had to use inverse and forward kinematic algorithms for moving the robot with controlled translation and orientation. The main aims of the workshop (1. High quality in education and 2. Student should have fun) were achieved.