IstiABot, an Open Source Mobile Robot for Education and Research

Abstract

IstiABot is a mobile robot made for education and research purposes. This robot aims to be modular, easy to modify and used by first year students as well as last year students and researchers. To achieve those requirements, the robot is built on the top of a CANBus Network. This paper presents the robot and the approach behind its building. It also presents an educational application of the platform (tuning a PID controller) and a research application (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping - SLAM - experimentations). Finally it concludes about this experience and introduce two other robots that were built based on the IstiABot. As it was wanted for the robot to be as free as possible, all the source code and 3D modeling are available.