‘Centauri’, the robot of the Autonomous students

From left to right: Víctor Romero, teacher; Francisco Pedroza y Andrés Araque, students.

'Centauri', a manipulator robot that can perform tasks such as 'Pick and Place', that is, taking objects and downloading them at a specific point, with six degrees of movement, software and free hardware and usability in the industry, was built by students from the Robotics research group, from the Faculty of Engineering of the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente.

The moving parts of the robot and the end effector were printed in 3D, in the FabLab Cali of the UAO. These parts are articulated and operate through 'stepper motors', which are electromechanical devices that convert a series of electrical impulses into angular displacements.

'Centauri' is the first robot made in Colombia with hardware and free software that in addition to allowing customized configurations of movement, is based on the 'Robot Operating System', ROS, which works as an intermediary in the passage of information between the parts of the robot, and the user and the robot.

Francisco Pedroza, a student of the Mechatronics Engineering program, member of the robotics research group and one of the robot's managers, affirms that "the robot has a user interface, which makes communication between the user and user more friendly. the control system. The interface is composed of a working framework for ROS (Robot Operating System) called RQT, which through a tag language allows, in a friendly way, to perform graphical interfaces. "

Although in Colombia there have been several robots that use 'Open Source' platforms, ie platforms for the development of software and hardware based on open collaboration. The robotics research group of the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente is a pioneer in the implementation of robotic platforms in ROS.

"'Centauri', in addition to carrying out tasks 'Pick and place' can also perform tasks of the agricultural industry such as atomizing crops and irrigating pesticides, changing its final effector by an atomizer" assured Andrés Araque, a student of the Mechatronics Engineering program, member of the Robotics research group and one of the managers of 'Centauri'.