Teaching Platforms

Experimental platforms designed for student projects
Swarm robotics, software-defined radio, wireless sensor networks

Alongside my teaching, I design and deploy experimental platforms that give students hands-on access to emerging technologies. Three of them structure the practical work and student projects of the Telecommunications department and of the FIMI first cycle: a software-defined radio platform (USRP B210 and RTL-SDR receivers, with portable spectrum analysers), a LoRaWAN wireless sensor network platform built on Arduino MKR1310 boards for the P2I-2 multidisciplinary project, and a fleet of eight motorised Strandbeest robots dedicated to swarm robotics projects. The page below documents this last platform.

The Strandbeest robot fleet

The Strandbeests, creations of the Dutch sculptor Theo Jansen, are giant centipede-like structures that move using the power of the wind source. To blend poetry with technology, I collaborated with Aref Electronique to oversee the design of eight mini strandbeests equipped with motors, which were then made available for our students' projects.

The strandbeest platform consists of an electronic "base" board, equivalent to the Arduino UNO board, equipped with numerous peripherals to control various sensors, as well as two motors and their control devices necessary for the robot's movement. The base board is not a standard Arduino board, but it integrates the same ATMEL ATMega328 processor, configured with the same bootloader. This allows access to the Arduino IDE environment for programming and uploading programs, as well as to all the software resources offered by the Arduino libraries.

The base board has a communication interface with a Raspberry PI3 embedded on the platform, a motorized webcam with its PWM control system, and a multicolored LED ring. It includes motor control, the management of various sensors via I2C bus (ultrasonic, temperature, accelerometer, etc.), communication interfaces (RF24, Bluetooth, WIFI), a USB communication interface with a Raspberry PI3, and a power supply module allowing in-situ battery charging via USB port, avoiding the need for an external charger as with UNO boards. This design is optimized for autonomy.

Additionally, a DWM1001 DEV positioning module can be added. The motors can be controlled wirelessly via Bluetooth using HyperTerminal on PC or smartphone, or by RF24 modules via an Arduino UNO node connected to a PC or smartphone.