TY - JOUR

T1 - ROMR: A ROS-based open-source mobile robot

AU - Nwankwo, Linus

AU - Fritze, Clemens

AU - Bartsch, Konrad

AU - Rückert, Elmar

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)

PY - 2023/5/6

Y1 - 2023/5/6

N2 - Currently, commercially available intelligent transport robots that are capable of carrying up to 90 kg of load can cost $5,000 or even more. This makes real-world experimentation prohibitively expensive and limits the applicability of such systems to everyday home or industrial tasks. Aside from their high cost, the majority of commercially available platforms are either closed-source, platform-specific or use difficult-to-customize hardware and firmware. In this work, we present a low-cost, open-source and modular alternative, referred to herein as “ROS-based Open-source Mobile Robot (ROMR)”. ROMR utilizes off-the-shelf (OTS) components, additive manufacturing technologies, aluminium profiles, and a consumer hoverboard with high-torque brushless direct current (BLDC) motors. ROMR is fully compatible with the robot operating system (ROS), has a maximum payload of 90 kg, and costs less than $1500. Furthermore, ROMR offers a simple yet robust framework for contextualizing simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms, an essential prerequisite for autonomous robot navigation. The robustness and performance of the ROMR were validated through real-world and simulation experiments. All the design, construction and software files are freely available online under the GNU GPL v3 license at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/K83X7. A descriptive video of ROMR can be found at https://osf.io/ku8ag.

AB - Currently, commercially available intelligent transport robots that are capable of carrying up to 90 kg of load can cost $5,000 or even more. This makes real-world experimentation prohibitively expensive and limits the applicability of such systems to everyday home or industrial tasks. Aside from their high cost, the majority of commercially available platforms are either closed-source, platform-specific or use difficult-to-customize hardware and firmware. In this work, we present a low-cost, open-source and modular alternative, referred to herein as “ROS-based Open-source Mobile Robot (ROMR)”. ROMR utilizes off-the-shelf (OTS) components, additive manufacturing technologies, aluminium profiles, and a consumer hoverboard with high-torque brushless direct current (BLDC) motors. ROMR is fully compatible with the robot operating system (ROS), has a maximum payload of 90 kg, and costs less than $1500. Furthermore, ROMR offers a simple yet robust framework for contextualizing simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms, an essential prerequisite for autonomous robot navigation. The robustness and performance of the ROMR were validated through real-world and simulation experiments. All the design, construction and software files are freely available online under the GNU GPL v3 license at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/K83X7. A descriptive video of ROMR can be found at https://osf.io/ku8ag.

KW - autonomous robot

KW - differential-drive robot

KW - Mobile robot

KW - open-source robot

KW - ROS

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159209362&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://cloud.cps.unileoben.ac.at/index.php/s/8aXLXXPFAZ4wq54

U2 - 10.1016/j.ohx.2023.e00426

DO - 10.1016/j.ohx.2023.e00426

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85159209362

VL - 14.2023

JO - HardwareX

JF - HardwareX

SN - 2468-0672

IS - June

M1 - e00426

ER -