Evolving State Machines as Robot Controllers

Automated generation of robot controllers using an Evolutionary Algorithm(EA) has received increasing attention in the last years as it has the potentialfor a reduction in the development time of a robot. Often these EAs generateNeural Networks (NNs) as robot controllers. Using a NN for automaticallygenerating robot controllers has two important...

Feasibility Study of LUFAR

With the steady increase in space missions, enabled through technological advances and increase of commercialisation within the space flight industry, both more and increasingly complex missions can be designed for space. To this end, the Lunar Zebro project competes within this field through its small lunar rover design, drastically decreasing...

Design of a magnetic coupling for reducing maintenance in long-term-autonomous bio-inspired underwater vehicles

Bio-inspired underwater vehicles are highly researched as a means for low-invasive monitoring. As a result, the performance of these vehicles has improved greatly. Research has thus far been directed towards the performances of the swimming motion. In order for the development of these bio-inspired underwater vehicles to continue, the increased...

Lunar Zebro - Software Design Of The Locomotion Sub-System With The Dezyne Model Driven Development Tool

The TU Delft ZEs-Benige RObot (Zebro) project is presented with the opportunity to bring the Zebro concept to the surface of our moon. To maximise the probability of success, the Locomotion Sub-System (LSS) software of Lunar Zebro is developed using a novel model-driven design tool called Dezyne. Dezyne uses a proprietary language to describe...

Design of the locomotion subsystem for the Lunar Zebro: A design and implementation to ensure that Zebro can thrive on the moon

This report covers the development of the Locomotion system for the Lunar Zebro that is responsible for the positioning control of the six legs and the operating of the solar panel. It covers the initial problem analysis, requirement discovery, conceptual design, part identification for implementation, implementation and the first tests, their...

Development of Battery System and Output for the DeciZebro

In this thesis it is described how a Battery System and an Output System are designed. This design is part of a Power System for the DeciZebro swarm robot. Two other parts are designed, the Input System and the Control System. A battery pack was designed, together with a Battery Management System. Next the Output System was designed. Finally the...

Nuna Car Sensor System - Current Sensor

The aim of this thesis is to design a high precision current sensor for the Nuna solar car. A shunt based current sensor was chosen and a circuit is designed based on this method. In order to improve the accuracy a temperature compensation is needed.<br/>

Development of Power System Control for the DeciZebro

The development of swarm robotics strives for resilience, a key factor in this is energy supply. Without energy a robot swarm cannot operate, so a self sustaining power management system is of great importance. In this thesis, the design of the power management system control hardware and firmware for the new DeciZebro is discussed. The power...

Development of a multiple input power conversion system for the DeciZebro

The DeciZebro is a six-legged autonomous robot is being developed by the Zebro team at the TU Delft. The robot should become autonomous and be able to "feed" itself like a real animal. Currently, it is only possible to charge the DeciZebro using a laptop charger. The goal is to allow the robot to charge itself without human intervention using a...

A Wireless Charging solution for the Zebro

The Zebro is a six legged autonomous robot, designed to be deployed in swarms. Charging the battery is still done manually. To further increase the autonomous abilities of the Zebro, a wireless charging station and module is designed. The charging station is fully modular and interconnected by charging pads. This opens the possibility of...

Swarm robot localization from noisy distance measurements

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Environment Observation Module for the Deci Zebro: Obstacle and Motion Detection using a Laser Rangefinder and Optical Flow

A Camera Submodule for the Environment Observation Module for a Zebro robot was designed. It is able to collect and process data about obstacles on a Raspberry Pi and send this to the main processor of the Environment Observation module using UART. <br/>The two main functions that were implemented are a laser rangefinder based on triangulation...

Obstacle and Cliff Detection for Robotics Applications Using Miniturized Sonar and IR Distance Triangulation: Environment Observation Module For The Deci Zebro

This is a bachelor thesis about the design and development of an observation and sensing module for the Deci Zebro robot that is being developed at the EEMCS faculty of Delft University of Technology.<br/>This part of the thesis is about the development of a cliff- and obstacle detection system, as well as the...

Fundamentals For An Autonomous Zebro Swarm

In this thesis, a swarm is defined as:<br/>”A swarm is a large number of homogenous, unsophisticated agents that interact locally<br/>among themselves and their environment, without any central control or management to<br/>yield a global behaviour to emerge.”<br/>The bigger perspective is to have the units within a swarm operate for a...