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

这一小型企业技术转移研究(STTR)第一阶段研究项目建议开发通用处理和传感器组件，并配有开放源代码软件和课程，用于在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)课程中使用腿式机器人作为平台。该方案的创新之处在于提供了一种中间件产品，它由一个带有腿部机器人传感器的处理板组成，作为腿部平台的底层控制和机械与高级应用软件之间的一层。教育工作者将能够将他们的中间件从一个腿平台转移到另一个腿平台，允许软件、课程和硬件重复使用。中间件提供了一层抽象层，远离腿部系统的机械控制的细节。它还提供传感器，如脚部触觉和惯性处理单元，这些对腿部机器人来说是唯一重要的。该产品能够开发更高级别的认知算法，如路径规划、基于视觉的算法和基于行为的控制系统，并用于通过无线接口控制各种机器人。腿部机器人的独特功能和挑战为高中和大学课程提供了许多STEM主题的独特机会。机器人目前被用于各种STEM班级。然而，教育机器人平台以轮式机器人为主，具有生物基础的腿式机器人几乎没有。机器人拥有良好的车载处理能力、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完成有趣的研究任务是必不可少的。目前市场上可用的腿部机器人缺乏这些功能。机器人技术的另一个问题是，每个机器人平台的软件、操作系统和传感器硬件都不同，因此在从一个平台移动到另一个平台时，传感器和软件不容易重复使用。这对教育工作者来说是一种风险，他们开发课程并投资于硬件，然后这些硬件就停产了。所提出的研究成果是专门为多腿机器人平台设计的控制器。拥有一个在机器人课程方面拥有专业知识的学术项目团队，与一家专门从事设计和开发的小型机器人公司合作，将开发出一种完全集成的产品，教育人员可以在他们的STEM课程中使用。

This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I research project proposes the development of a generalized processing and sensor pack complete with open-source software and curricula for using legged robots as a platform in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses. The innovation of this proposal is to provide a middleware product, which consists of a processing board with sensors for legged robots serving as a layer between the low-level controls and mechanics of a legged platform and the high-level application software. Educators will be able to move their middleware from one legged platform to another, allowing software, curriculum, and hardware re-use. The middleware provides a layer of abstraction away from the details of the mechanical control of the legged system. It also provides sensors, such as foot haptics and an inertial processing unit that are uniquely important for legged robots. This products enables higher-level cognitive algorithms, such as path-planning, vision-based algorithms and behavior-based control systems, to be developed and used to control a variety of robots over a wireless interface.The distinctive features and challenges of legged robots provide unique opportunities for high-school and college curricula in a numerous STEM topics. Robots are currently used in a variety of STEM classes. However, the educational robot platforms are dominated by wheeled robots; legged robots with a biological basis are almost absent. Robots, which have good on-board processing power, sensors, a wireless interface, and open-source software, are necessary for building a curriculum that meets educational standards and for doing interesting research assignments. Currently available legged robots on the market are lacking these features. An additional problem with robotics is that software, operating systems, and sensor hardware are different for each robot platform, so that sensors and software cannot easily be reused when moving from one platform to another. This is a risk to educators who develop curricula and invest in hardware which then gets discontinued. The outcome of the proposed research is specifically designed to be a controller for multiple legged robot platforms. Having an academic project team with expertise in robotics curricula working with a small robotics company whose expertise is design and development, a complete integrated product that educators can use in their STEM courses will be developed.