Students at Ohio Northern University designed an interactive self guided robot made to give tours of the University’s engineering building to prospective students
Participants in SICK’s TiM$10K Challenge from Ohio Northern University (ONU) produced a welcoming robot for the James Lehr Kennedy Engineering building on ONU’s campus. Professor Thomas Zechmann, the Assistant Dean of the College of Engineering is responsible for giving tours of the building to prospective students. The team of six, Todd Federici, Joseph Jennings, Matthew Schweinefuss, Bradley Lauback, Alan LaBelle, and Michael Collins decided to create the robot for Professor Zechmann.
The design itself is made to be interactive and engaging It shows different graphics and can even make customizable facial expressions. When giving tours, the robot will share the history of the College of Engineering, videos, and projects of current and former students.
The robot is 70 inches tall and connected to a square 24×24 inch base. It has four aluminum support beams, and an outer shell made of plexiglass so that students can see the technology working inside the robot. Much of the robot’s weight is located as close to the ground as possible to ensure stability. A large portion of this weight comes from a 200Ah SLA battery, which is stored inside the base of the robot.
The technology aspect of the robot consists of two BaneBot 12V 0.55hp DC motors, a NVIDIA Jetson processor, an Arudino mega, a raspberry pi, a monitor, a cooling system, and TiM LiDAR sensors.
When creating this robot, artificial intelligence was used to give a self-guided tour that could be adopted by other colleges. The technology could also be integrated into museums to guide individuals and explain different art pieces or historical facts. Overall, the use of the robot in the commercial industry is a popular choice for places like museums, college campuses, and airports.
If you want to know more information about the TiM$10K challenge, check out this blog post here!
