BeagleRover: An Open-Source 3D-Printable Robotic Platform for Engineering Education and Research

Abstract

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-1914.vid Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of robotic platforms specialized in engineering education. And more robotic courses are being designed and taught in the curricula of different school levels and college programs. Among a number of the educational mobile robotic platforms, however, one can rarely find a small-sized, 4-wheel-driven mobile robot which can be considered as a chassis design for extraterrestrial or off-road rovers. In addition, it could difficult for the learners to understand the circuits configuration and electrical actuation of embedded systems from an off-the-shelf robotic platform. In this paper, we propose a low-cost open-source robotic platform named BeagleRover. BeagleRover is a 4-wheel-driven mobile robot of the size 236 x 223 x 85mm (L x W x H). It includes 4 DC servo motors and 4 DC gear motors to over-actuate its motion in order to realize more precise path-tracking on uneven terrains. Most of its components are 3D-printable using hobbyist printers or can be procured at relatively low costs from hobbyist websites. The controller board which BeagleRover uses is BeagleBone® Blue by default but can be replaced by some other SoC computers due to BeagleRover's multiple sets of mounting holes. In addition, We utilized BeagleRovers during the MAE 40 and MAE 144 classes at UC San Diego to help instruct electrical circuit fundamentals and classical control theories, respectively. Next, code-based and Simulink-based software approaches are discussed for users to choose and start with for their own projects. Last but not least, we explore the feasibility of using BeagleRover as a research platform for indoor navigation and SLAM and object detection studies.