Development of a robot for RoboCup SmallSize League, utilizing a distributed controlarchitecture for a multi-robot systemdevelopment platform

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: RoboCup promotes research in robotics and multi-robot systems (MRS).The RoboCup Small Size League (SSL), in particular, offers an entry levelopportunity to take part in this field of study. This thesis presents a startingphase for research in robotics and MRS at Stellenbosch University. It includesthe full documentation of the mechanical, electronic and software design of anomni-directional soccer robot for RoboCup SSL. The robot is also meant tooperate as a hardware and software development platform for research in MRS.The platform was therefore designed with high-level programming languagecompatibility, a wide range of connectivity, and modularity in mind. Therobot uses a single board computer (SBC) running a Linux operating systemto accomplish these objectives. Moreover, a driver class library was writtenin C++ as a software application interface (API) for future development onthe robot platform. The robot was also developed with a particular focus on adistributed control architecture. Player was implemented as the middleware,which can be used for communication between multiple robots in a distributedenvironment. Additionally, three tests were performed to demonstrate thefunctionality of the prototype: a PI speed control test, a direction accuracytest and a static communication test using the middleware. Recommendationsfor possible future work are also given.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University