STTR Phase II: General Robot Controller for Legged Mobile Robots with Integrated Open Source Software

这个小型企业技术转移（STTR）第二阶段项目的重点是开发一个通用的处理和传感器包，包括开源软件和课程，将有腿机器人作为科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）课程的教育平台。该提案的创新之处在于一个名为SkewZone Brain and Sensor Pack的中间件产品。这个大脑包由处理板、插入式传感器、无线通信、软件接口和机械硬件组成，可以连接到商用的有腿机器人上，作为机器人平台的低级操作和高级软件之间的增值层。教育工作者将能够将他们的大脑包从一个机器人迁移到另一个机器人，从而允许软件、课程和硬件的可重用性。大脑包提供了足够的感官反馈来关闭有腿平台的机械控制回路。更高级的认知算法，如路径规划、视觉和基于行为的系统，可以很容易地开发或重用。有腿机器人的独特特点和挑战为高中和大学课程中众多STEM主题提供了独特的机会。机器人目前用于各种课程。然而，目前的教育机器人平台以轮式机器人为主；具有生物基础的有腿机器人几乎不存在。机器人具有足够的机载处理能力、传感器、无线接口和开源软件，对于构建符合教育标准的课程和有趣的研究任务是必要的。

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.