This Small Business Technolgy Transfer (STTR) Phase II project focuses on the development of a generalized processing and sensor pack complete with open-source software and curricula for using legged robots as an educational platform for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses. The innovation of this proposal is a middleware product called SkewZone Brain and Sensor Pack. This Brain Pack which consists of processing boards, plug-in sensors, wireless communication, software interfaces and mechanical hardware for attachment to commercially available legged robots, serves as a value-added layer between the low-level operations of a robot platform and the high-level software. Educators will be able to migrate their Brain Pack from one robot to another, allowing software, curriculum, and hardware reuseability. The Brain Pack provides sufficient sensory feedback to close the loop on the mechanical control of the legged platform. Higher-level cognitive algorithms, such as path-planning, vision, and behavior-based systems, can be easily developed or reused.
The distinctive features and challenges of legged robots provide unique opportunities for high-school and college curricula in numerous STEM topics. Robots are currently used in a variety of classes. However, current educational robot platforms are dominated by wheeled robots; legged robots with a biological basis are almost absent. Robots, which have sufficient on-board processing power, sensors, a wireless interface, and open-source software, are necessary for building curricula that meet educational standards and for interesting research assignments.
Robots that Inspire Learning Kim Wheeler, PI RoadNarrows LLC Jerry Weinberg, Co-PI Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Solutions to the world’s most difficult problems will be solved by our future engineers and scientists. Walking robots provide distinctive opportunities for introducing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts to engage our young students today to become our engineers and scientists of tomorrow. Infusing classrooms with hands-on projects of cutting edge technologies can do just that. Robots in particular have a unique ability to engage students. Robots are a physical embodiment of computation and mathematics. Students program and implement the otherwise abstract concepts and watch them come alive to get a comprehensive understanding. More importantly, through the success of hands-on robotics projects, students develop a vital self-perception: they see themselves as engineers and scientists. The SkewlZone Brain Pack project is about bringing walking robots into the classroom. Current walking robots have very limited ability because they lack senses such as touch, sight, and surprisingly balance. Their moves must be carefully scripted. This project adds these senses along with a way students can program the robots to react to what they see and feel. The Brain Pack is developed to fit on to a variety of existing walking robots, both two and four legged. This makes it easy to move the Brain Pack to new robot platforms as they come out on the market. In addition, the project develops curricular modules that can be used directly or as examples for teachers to adopt in their classrooms. SkewlZone is a collaboration between RoadNarrows, a small robotics company, and students and faculty from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). The project is bringing together educators, researchers, engineers, and students working from low-level electronics through classroom curricula and STEM modules. Background A problem with robotics technology is that software, operating systems, and sensors are different for each robot platform, so that components cannot easily be reused when moving from one platform to another. This is a risk to educators who develop curricula and invest in hardware that gets discontinued or unsupported by the manufacturer. The Brain Pack is specifically designed to support a variety of legged robot platforms. It is built from standard open-source operating systems and languages, and makes use of well-established electronic communication interfaces. BotSense, an open-source middleware software package developed as part of this project, provides the ability to poll sensors and send movement commands to servos. It is designed to work with higher-level software tools such as applications supported by Robot Operating System (ROS, by Willow Garage), and Tekkotsu, created by Carnegie Mellon University. For example, SIUE developed the support for Tekkotsu robotics programming package to work with SkewlZone. This allows any user to use Tekkotsu’s large library of built-in behaviors for robotic control and sensor processing, including vision algorithms. Classroom assignments developed for Tekkotsu can now be used with SkewlZone-supported legged robots. ROS support for DynamixelTM-based SkewlZone systems is also being developed. A growing community of both academic users and industrial roboticists are using ROS and developing their applications with ROS support. This is an exciting change in open-source robotics, as the growing community can work together to better support interesting and extendible learning experiences for both students and researchers under a common standard. The distinctive features and challenges of legged robots provide unique opportunities for K-12 and college curricula in numerous STEM topics. Educational robot platforms currently used in classes are dominated by wheeled robots; legged robots with a biological basis are almost absent. Robots that have a biological basis that can be programmed for walking, dancing, and other situations appeal to a wider range of students with more diverse sets of interests than strictly engineering. Therefore, legged robotics in schools reach students that tend to be underrepresented in engineering and technological sciences. Robots are ideal for building curriculum that both meets educational standards and gets students excited about careers in technology. Commercial Impacts As a result of this grant, RoadNarrows is providing legged robots, components, cameras, sensors, and open-source software to the academic community. The company is working with schools and outreach programs to help inspire students to study STEM topics and get excited about learning. This technology is being leveraged into several commercial products. The Brain Pack can be described as a mobile camera with embedded computer and intelligent software, which is the foundation of a medical imaging product to help caregivers record and monitor wounds and injuries. RoadNarrows has also used the expertise and software developed in this grant to create an intelligent robotic manipulator called Hekateros. This arm will be used in a variety of light industry settings as well as research and development. Computer vision software developed for the SkewlZone robots is now being used for detecting microorganisms and parasites for health officials in third world countries.
