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The people's robot

February 26, 2004

Industrial robot components are costly. For researchers or teachers, this means reaching deep into thin wallets. VolksBot, an affordable off-the-shelf solution, saves precious development time and brings robotics to the consumer market. It will be shown at CeBIT trade fair.

When Commodore launched the first home computer on the German market - the VC-20 - it was a real sensation. Its legendary predecessor, the C-64, was the first truly affordable "personal" computer, and the start of the PC revolution.

What computer freaks struggled with in those days, is what robot developers are now experiencing: "Assembling a computer for research use with sensors, camera and motors can easily cost as much as a new small car," laments Dr. Ansgar Bredenfeld from the Fraunhofer Institute for Autonomous Intelligent Systems AIS in Saint Augustin near Bonn. The institute's answer: the VolksBot or people's robot. The modular robot platform is targeted especially at universities, research institutes and schools generally plagued by tight budgets. Volksbot is the result of the AIS researcher's years of experience with RoboCup, a worldwide robot soccer league that enables researchers to test and enhance the capabilities of their autonomous androids.

One of the features that emerged from VolksBot is the camera system, AISVision. As an alternative to mechanically unreliable motorized cameras, this fixed camera points vertically upwards towards a hyperbolic mirror. It ensures a full 360°, 640 x 480 pixel, high-resolution view without having to move. In addition to the pre-assembled robot and motor, the VolksBot package contains a novel motor controller and simulation software as well as ICONNECT, a program from Micro-Epsilon. Thanks to the intuitive software interface, even users with no programming experience can get the robot underway in little time. Volksbot is controlled via a chassis-mounted, commercially available notebook computer. The complete package costs EUR 3,500 and can be ordered directly at AIS. "Several RoboCup teams are already utilizing Volksbot components," hints Bredenfeld. The platform not only reduces the financial investment but development time as well. For computer science students looking to test a new navigation program for instance, the phrase "assembly required" no longer applies. Anyone interested in seeing VolksBot in action should visit CeBIT in Hannover from March 18-24. The joint Fraunhofer exhibit is located in the Future Parc, Hall 11.

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

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