Mixed reality educational environment for robotics

This work presents an operational setup for carrying out experiments in robotics using a mixed-reality approach. The objective of this setup is twofold, on one hand it aims to be a useful educational tool for teaching robotics and on the other it is a tool to help in the development and study of embodied evolution. The design represents an intermediate system between a real and a simulated scenario so as to work with real robots and to make easier and simpler the configuration and modification of the rest of the elements of the experiments. The present operational setup consists, mainly, of a video projector to represent the virtual elements projecting them over the arena of the experiment, a zenithal camera to capture the state of real elements moving on the arena, and a computer which monitors and controls the scenario. As a result, both real and virtual elements interact on the arena and their state is updated based on world rules of the experiment and on the state and actions of other elements. The scheme implemented in the main computer to control and structure this environment is based on the one proposed in a previous work for the definition of scenarios in a simulation environment named Waspbed, which was designed for the study of simulated coevolution processes in multiagent systems. Apart from the advantages provided in robotics research when large testing period times are required, this setup is used for getting students from engineering degrees used to deal with robotics and all its associated fields, such as artificial vision, evolutionary robotics, communication protocols, etc. in a very simple, quick and cheap way, which otherwise wouldn´t be feasible taking into account the academic constraints of time and resources.