Berry Interview

2 min

  1. What is Mobile Robotics?/What are the core concepts covered here?

    1. Develop a control architecture from a mobile robot

    2. Lab 1- No sensors, motion/odometry

    3. Lab 2 - Infrared, sonar obstacle avoidance (360deg), Sensor redundancy/error

    4. Lab 3 - Wall Following, encoders for odometry, feedback control using encoders to correct for odometry error, hybrid control/hierarchy

    5. Lab 4 - Mapping and localization, path planning. No additional sensors, but if we had a camera, we could use it for mapping or reconnaisance.
      Use GUI to drive robot around and share data with use.

  2. What are the platforms currently in use (if they have names)

    1. If not, what is the SBC in use (TI, RasPi, BB, etc)

      1. Arduino Giga/Dual Core – addressing concerns of programming robot with background instructions at the same time

        1. Implemented as of last year

    2. Original robot based on “StemBots”, but the controller wasn’t liked bc it was all PIC programming, so everyone that wasn’t a EE hated it https://stembots.com/

      1. Robot body made by University of Nebraska, liked the durability

    3. What is the mechanical arrangement of the platforms in use

      1. # of motors, 2

      2. motor type, DC

      3. encoding/driving specification, tank

  3. What is the minimum required feature-set of a platform of this type

    1. Distance sensors

    2. Controller that is easy for multidisciplinary students to use

  4. If you could create a new robot, is there something you want to teach that is not currently accommodated

    1. Standardize to one IDE

      1. Students spread across Arduino IDE, MATLAB… better if everyone was on one page for teaching purposes

  5. General queries

    1. From your perspective-- weaknesses?

      1. Some students struggle because they have very different skillsets

        1. Some are pure electrical, pure software, pure mechanical… and they are in very small groups, so would there be a better way to onboard everyone?

      2. Mechanical capability of robot-- encoder precision a big problem

      3. Wireless communication for SLAM project-- nothing builtin so students don’t do it the same way

      4. No reliable camera functionality

        1. HuskyLens-- “maybe try ArduCam or PixieLens instead?”

    2. From your perspective-- strengths?

      1. Adding and removing things to the robot is no problem

      2. Not really interested in changing the platform itself from her perspective, but adding/removing things i.e. motors sensors she would be up for

  6. Relative price of these platforms/# of groups in an avg class of this type at Rose?

    1. 2 students per robot or if odd, 3 students to robot but not preferred because of perceived uneven workload. Unit cost prob ~150-250 per unit, variable now since platform development is pretty dead

  7. Please email me a syllabus

 

Re: beginner/intermediate/advanced question-- the robot is marketed K-16, so all student ageranges. I think the issue here is that this kind of education is not standardized in the US enough for this determination to exist in this space. They take the “beginner level” robotics platform (meant for any entrypoint) and then make them perform very complicated robotics tasks with limited resources (i.e. SLAM/localization from scratch on a limited timeline), which introduces an “advanced” bent. But bottom line, the resources available to students on the platform and the limitation of the sensors (specifically encoder in Berry’s opinion and lack of IDE and wireless standardization) make this unfun and difficult.

 

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