The Design and Evolution of the eROSI Robot

The eROSI (educational, research-oriented, sensing, inexpensive) robot is a robotic platform designed by the Center for Distributed Robotics at the University of Minnesota. It was designed for two purposes; an educational platform and a distributed robotics platform. These two purposes require very different and oftentimes contradictory abilities. As an educational platform, it must be easy to use and program for. It must also be non-intimidating to students who may not have much experience with robotics. As a research platform, it must be powerful enough to run useful behaviors, and expandable with new sensors. These two different purposes have driven the design of the eROSI robot through three generations of development. The first two generations have been tested and evaluated in terms of its two intended purposes. The feedback generated was then used to modify the design of the robot to better accommodate its intended purposes. The eROSI robot is still an ongoing project and aims to create a better platform for both research and education.