Educational distributed control system for a wheeled mobile platform using video and sensor information
Autonomous systems for exploration, guarding, reconnaissance and taking probes are widely spread nowadays. Thus, a lot of well educated specialists are required in corresponding areas. There is a problem educating such specialists. It is connected with the necessity of practical experience in developing this kind of systems and interacting with them. The main fields of knowledge the graduated specialists have to deal with are neural networks, image recognition systems, image handling systems, fuzzy logic systems.
 To make students experienced in such kind of field, the authors have developed an autonomous four-wheeled platform. The platform is equipped with a set of sensors and a special arm for taking samples. The chassis of the platform is a four-wheeled plate made of styrofoam. The platform is driven by 12V motors with built-in gearbox. The platform is equipped with on-board Raspberry Pi computer with Raspbian as an operating system. The motors are controlled by the Aruduino Uno board connected to the Raspberry Pi through USB. There is a motorshield mounted on the Arduino that controls the motors of the platform. The prototyping shield with the set of sensors (magnetometer + accelerometer) is also mounted on the Arduino.
 The Arduino board is connected to the ultrasonic distance sensors to detect obstacles in front of the platform. There is an IP-camera in front part of the platform to get video information of the platform''s environment. While working, the on-board computer creates a WiFi access point. One can control the platform or get its videostream using this WiFi network.
 The software of the platform consists of a set of programs that are connected to each other via network protocols using client-server technology. The set of the programs includes video server to get information from the IP-camera, the neural network server, the fuzzy logic server and the server to control the motors of the platform. The platform and its software were used during international technical summer schools provided by Siberian State Aerospace University named after M. F. Reshetnev. This system can also be used during the autonomous system development process.