PlatypOUs—A Mobile Robot Platform and Demonstration Tool Supporting STEM Education
Melinda Rácz,
Erick Noboa,
Borsa Détár,
Ádám Nemes,
Péter Galambos,
László Szűcs,
Gergely Márton,
György Eigner,
Tamás Haidegger
Affiliations
Melinda Rácz
Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Magyar Tudósok krt. 2., H-1117 Budapest, Hungary
Erick Noboa
Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics, Robotics Special College, University Research and Innovation Center, Óbuda University, Bécsi út 96/B, H-1034 Budapest, Hungary
Borsa Détár
Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics, Robotics Special College, University Research and Innovation Center, Óbuda University, Bécsi út 96/B, H-1034 Budapest, Hungary
Ádám Nemes
Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics, Robotics Special College, University Research and Innovation Center, Óbuda University, Bécsi út 96/B, H-1034 Budapest, Hungary
Péter Galambos
Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics, Robotics Special College, University Research and Innovation Center, Óbuda University, Bécsi út 96/B, H-1034 Budapest, Hungary
László Szűcs
Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics, Robotics Special College, University Research and Innovation Center, Óbuda University, Bécsi út 96/B, H-1034 Budapest, Hungary
Gergely Márton
Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Magyar Tudósok krt. 2., H-1117 Budapest, Hungary
György Eigner
Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics, Robotics Special College, University Research and Innovation Center, Óbuda University, Bécsi út 96/B, H-1034 Budapest, Hungary
Tamás Haidegger
Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics, Robotics Special College, University Research and Innovation Center, Óbuda University, Bécsi út 96/B, H-1034 Budapest, Hungary
Given the rising popularity of robotics, student-driven robot development projects are playing a key role in attracting more people towards engineering and science studies. This article presents the early development process of an open-source mobile robot platform—named PlatypOUs—which can be remotely controlled via an electromyography (EMG) appliance using the MindRove brain–computer interface (BCI) headset as a sensor for the purpose of signal acquisition. The gathered bio-signals are classified by a Support Vector Machine (SVM) whose results are translated into motion commands for the mobile platform. Along with the physical mobile robot platform, a virtual environment was implemented using Gazebo (an open-source 3D robotic simulator) inside the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework, which has the same capabilities as the real-world device. This can be used for development and test purposes. The main goal of the PlatypOUs project is to create a tool for STEM education and extracurricular activities, particularly laboratory practices and demonstrations. With the physical robot, the aim is to improve awareness of STEM outside and beyond the scope of regular education programmes. It implies several disciplines, including system design, control engineering, mobile robotics and machine learning with several application aspects in each. Using the PlatypOUs platform and the simulator provides students and self-learners with a firsthand exercise, and teaches them to deal with complex engineering problems in a professional, yet intriguing way.
