What is the BRAK Project?
The Basic Robotics Architecture Kit (BRAK) is an undergraduate project in the School of Engineering at the University of the Pacific to develop a relatively inexpensive yet sophisticated mobile robotics research platform for dissemination to the Internet community.
Objectives for the BRAK Project
The design for the mobile base was constrained by these specifications:- Cost: the total cost is a major concern. Except for the actual experience of building a robot, why do it when it's cheaper to buy one?
- Small size: we wanted a robot which could run inside any building without having to concern ourselves with steel-reinforced floors. Also, it's not very practical (or cost-effective) to rent a van every time we do a demo for the local elementary school.
- Portability: see above. I (Prof. Hughes) once carried a Heathkit Hero two tenths of a mile between building for a demo, and neither of us is really built for that (see "Project background" for more about the Hero). At the very least there should be a way to drive the robot between two locations when the surface permits.
- Reliable drive mechanism: the goal of the project is to develop algorithms for control of the robot, not to be mechanically inventive. Tried and proven mechanism was the way to go.
- Autonomous operation: we wanted to be capable of operating without requiring any external computers, sensors, or power supplies. (We want to be able to utilize networked computing and AC power when working on algorithm design, but not have to constrain the robot to a tethered existence.)
- Off-the-shelf components: we wanted students to be able to contribute to the project by designing some electrical and computer components, while tying this project to more general industrial/professional experience. We chose to use off-the-shelf, industry standard components such as motherboards and power supplies as the basis for the project; this allows the remaining components designed for the project to provide exposure to a more typical design application.
- Sensing hardware: all the sensors typical on a research platform should be accounted for in the design. This includes external sensors (such as ultrasonics and cameras) and internal sensors (optical shaft encoders, compasses, temperature sensors, etc). The design itself should not require the robot to have every conceivable sensor but should try to avoid making it difficult to incorporate additional sensors later.
- Extensibility: see above. The design should be flexible enough to allow new components to be added or existing components to be replaced.
Incidentally, the project is called the BRAK Project, but we will refer to the robot itself as Brak. If we ever build a second one, we'll have to deal with a new naming scheme at that time (or we could just call them all Darryl or Kosh or Bruce*).
Navigating this site
The "Quik Menu" to the right of each page will take you directly to the beginning of a major section. Each page in a section contains a link path below the main title showing the pages you traversed to get there (so if you forget or somehow get to a particular page by surfing, you can easily get back to the top). You can also use the Site Map so see a layout of the individual pages as well (except for cross-links between pages; there aren't many, but they would look really messy).Contacting us by e-mail
If you have comments or questions about the BRAK Project, Brak, or these web pages, send me e-mail as khughes@uop.edu. I'd be happy to hear from you.
Answers to Quiz 3, page 47
Oh, in case those references went --whoosh-- right over your head,- Darryl (and my other brother Darryl) was from the TV series "Newhart"
- Kosh ("We are all Kosh") was from the TV series "Babylon 5"
- Bruce ("mind if we call you Bruce just to keep things clear?" was from the TV series "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
