RCUBE - a platform for intelligent autonomous systems

Abstract

An intelligent robot platform for autonomous systems with vision capabilities has been developed by the University of Applied Sciences Brandenburg in cooperation with SME's. The system is suitable as a research and education platform for universities, a basis for industrial applications and for private developers of robots. This paper presents an architecture overview and application details of the RCUBE system. RCUBE is available in 2 modular versions: (1) a cost-effective platform for reactive robots and private developers (2) a performant platform for intelligent robots with image processing capabilities suitable for research, development and education in the field of service robotics. The system consists of 3 ready-to-program hardware modules with a basic software layer. They can be combined in different configurations. The modularity provides the flexibility to configure an RCUBE system for different application areas, but also single modules can be used in applications such as autonomous intelligent cameras or planning robots (e.g. lawnmower, vacuum cleaner). A key feature is the capability to autonomous image processing combined with sensors and actors, small size and low power consumption. RCUBE opens the way to small independent seeing robots.