In the context of mobile robotics education, realistic and accessible datasets are fundamental for supporting the development and testing of algorithms. However, collecting real-world data is a limited and challenging task because it is time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, this paper presents the generation of a synthetic dataset through realistic simulation using the SimTwo environment—a physics-based simulator, and modeling techniques of sensors and actuators. The physical and simulated mobile robot was developed to perform tasks such as following a line, following a wall, and avoiding obstacles. The proposed approach facilitates the creation of customized datasets for training and evaluation algorithms while supporting remote and inclusive learning. Results show that a simulated dataset can effectively replicate real-world behaviors, making them a valuable resource for educational contexts, research, and development. Some emergent machine learning algorithms can be applied to this dataset, being this approach increasingly used to enhance robot localization, by leveraging ML, robots can improve the accuracy, robustness, and adaptability of their localization systems, especially in complex and dynamic environments.

The transition from centralized to distributed control architectures in mobile robotics introduces the challenge of "Temporal Coherence"—the requirement that physically separated actuators execute commands simultaneously. This paper presents a validation of standard Ethernet Multicast to achieve Soft Real-Time synchronization suitable for dynamic locomotion. An "Inertial Filtering Condition" is proposed, positing that if network jitter (σc) is negligible relative to the robot’s mechanical time constant (τmech), the system becomes functionally deterministic. Using a Dual-Core SMP architecture on RP2350 microcontrollers, this study demonstrates that standard Layer 2 Ethernet switches serve as effective hardware synchronizers. Experimental results show a packet-arrival reliability of 99.92% for a 1 kHz control loop and a network jitter standard deviation of σ ≈65 μs. Furthermore, a Virtual Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) stress test confirmed that inter-leg actuation skew is reduced to ≈ 275 μs, representing a 32x improvement over the 9 ms latency bottleneck observed in previous USB-Serial architectures. Finally, it is concluded that standard Ethernet transport provides sufficient statistical determinism for coordinated gait stability without requiring complex hard real-time protocols.

The pursuit of bio-inspired locomotion requires control architectures that are computationally efficient, deterministically synchronized, and modular. While centralized controllers offer simplicity, they suffer from wiring complexity. Consequently, distributed systems reduce cabling but introduce challenges in time synchronization due to communication latency. This paper presents an evaluation of a distributed control system for a quadrupedal robot utilizing the Raspberry Pi Pico 2W. An analysis was performed on a decentralized topology in which independent microcontrollers control specific parts of the robot rather than the entire system or a limb, and are synchronized via Micro-ROS over a serial transport layer. Leveraging the RP2350's dual-core symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) capabilities and FreeRTOS, the system maintains a 1 kHz motor control loop on Core 1, employing a “Hybrid SpinWait” strategy to minimize scheduling jitter. To systematically test the architecture, the system underwent five stress tests: Core Isolation Jitter Analysis, Dual-Board Step Response Latency, Safety Disconnect validation, and Time-based execution. Experimental data reveal a transport-induced bottleneck capping telemetry at $\approx$ 400 Hz, despite internal generation >500 Hz, confirming that the USB-Serial interface is the primary limiter for dynamic gait synchronization, requiring a future transition to UDP-based Ethernet.

This paper proposes a distributed robotic system using multiple embedded boards, each running a real-time operating system and integrated with micro-ROS for compatibility with ROS 2 (Robot Operating System), aiming to achieve scalable, real-time distributed control, as the current implementations lack a validated, resource-aware design that achieves deterministic, low-latency synchronization across multiple microcontroller boards while integrating seamlessly with ROS 2. The boards communicate via serial connections, enabling fast, reliable, and deterministic data exchange. The proposed architecture supports parallel sensor and motor control tasks, with message synchronization through ROS 2 topics and services. The presented results demonstrate low-latency communication and real-time performance, confirming the system’s effectiveness for scalability and suitability for modular robotic applications. An alternative for using micro-ROS with the MoveIt trajectory controller is also proposed. Together, these contributions address the gap in deterministic multi-board control on commodity microcontrollers and provide a reproducible path for modular robotic platforms.

This paper explores an innovative distributed real-time control system for a 3D-printed robotic leg. The system is constructed on a modular multi-board architecture that seamlessly integrates with ROS2 and micro-ROS, demonstrating the use of 3D printing for rapid prototyping and customized solutions. A notable feature of this robotic leg is its 360-degree rotating joint, which extends its range of motion, enabling intricate and versatile movements. Incorporating a shoulder joint further facilitates sideways mobility, augmenting its operational capabilities. A multi-board architecture is designed to ensure efficient communication, ease of component interchangeability, and robust scalability for future development. Additionally, advanced control techniques, including tuning of proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers, ensure responsive joint actuation tailored to the unique properties of 3D-printed materials. Experimental validation indicates low latency and stable operation, underscoring the system’s effectiveness for real-time robotic applications.

This work presents a conceptual and integrated automated battery swapping system to extend the operational autonomy of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The solution integrates cost-effective hardware and a WiFi-UDP communication protocol within a controlled validation setup. A proof-of-concept demonstration verified autonomous swapping under ideal landing assumptions, establishing functional integration across electronics, mechanics, and communication. The primary focus of this work is on implementing and validating the core concept. Topics such as sensitivity to landing misalignments, actuation speed, and the absence of quantitative performance metrics are outside the scope of this work and are proposed as future research directions. Project materials, including source code and CAD files, are available upon request to the authors.

Automation within robots has become essential to manufacturing, and its theory is relevant to future technological advances and industrial applications. Among robotic systems, SCARA manipulators stand out for their flexibility, accuracy, and speed across different tasks. Building upon a previously designed 3 DOF SCARA for educational environments, a fourth degree of freedom with gripper mechanics was designed and implemented to create a more interactive and versatile educational instrument. This work reveals the kinematic analysis incorporating the robot’s new enhancements and the system architecture enabling real-time operations. The results demonstrate an accessible open-source platform with task scheduling, enhancing hands-on experiences in the educational field with an interface to control the robot and its upgraded end-effector.

Digital twins enable real-time modeling, simulation, and monitoring of complex systems, driving advancements in automation, robotics, and industrial applications. This study presents a large-scale digital twin-testing facility for evaluating mobile robots and pilot robotic systems in a research laboratory environment. The platform integrates high-fidelity physical and environmental models, providing a controlled yet dynamic setting for analyzing robotic behavior. A key feature of the system is its comprehensive data collection framework, capturing critical parameters such as position, orientation, and velocity, which can be leveraged for machine learning, performance optimization, and decision-making. The facility also supports the simulation of discrete operational systems, using predictive modeling to bridge informational gaps when real-time data updates are unavailable. The digital twin was validated through a matrix manufacturing system simulation, with an Augmented Reality (AR) interface on the HoloLens 2 to overlay digital information onto mobile platform controllers, enhancing situational awareness. The main contributions include a digital twin framework for deploying data-driven robotic systems and three key AR/VR integration optimization methods. Demonstrated in a laboratory setting, the system is a versatile tool for research and industrial applications, fostering insights into robotic automation and digital twin scalability while reducing costs and risks associated with real-world testing.

Robotic competitions have been popularly applied in the educational context, proving to be an excellent method for fostering student engagement and interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In this context, this paper presents the application of mobile robots in a classroom competition, in order to encourage students to enhance mobile robotics concepts learning in a dynamic and collaborative environment. The mobile robot prototyping is presented, and the methodology, including the Hardware-in-the-loop approach applied in the classrooms, is also described, together with the competition rules and challenges proposed for the students. The results indicated an improvement in students’ motivation, teamwork, communication, and the development of technical skills, computational thinking, and problem-solving.

One of the industry’s most common applications of lasers is engraving, which is generally performed on flat surfaces. However, there are many situations where the object to be engraved has an unevenly curved geometry. In those cases, the light power density will be different along the surface for a fixed head, leading to a poor engraving result. This work deals with this problem by designing a robotic application capable of detecting variations on the object surface and automatically creating a trajectory to engrave on it correctly. This was made possible through a robotic manipulator, a time-of-flight distance sensor, and a data processing algorithm over the measured data. Obtained results were acquired using a custom-made test rig and validated by delivering consistent engraving results on irregular surface shapes.

Integrating physical robots in an educational context often entails acquiring expensive equipment that often operates using proprietary software. Both conditions restrict the students from exploring and fully understanding the internal operation of robots. In response to these limitations, a three-degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator, based on the “EEZYbotARM MK2” open-source design by Carlo Franciscone, is being repurposed and integrated within the SimTwo simulation environment to operate within a hardware-in-the-loop architecture. To accomplish this objective, first, an open-source Arduino-based library was developed aiming at the robot’s online and offline programming akin to industrial robots. The firmware is able to communicate with the SimTwo software in which the digital twin’s robot is living. The dynamic behavior of the robot’s digital twin must be properly parametrized and aligned with the physical robot’s dynamics. This article describes the modeling of the robot joint’s actuator and its closed-loop controller formulation. The obtained results show that the dynamic behavior of the robot joint digital twin closely matches both open and closed-loop, the one of its physical counterpart.

Many times the simulation environment is an ad hoc implementation done with the single purpose of testing the author's algorithm or methodology. It is not difficult to find that the accuracy of the simulation is low and mostly unable to reflect the real world. While, under certain circumstances, that can be a valid approach there is the need of a simulation environment where the focus is on the physical realism while retaining a lot of configurability so that it can be adapted to a lot of different uses. In this paper it is presented a simulation environment where multiple kinds of robots can be modeled. The robots can be modeled based on a network of physical bodies interconnected by joints that can be powered, or not, by electrical motors. The corresponding low level controllers and the high level decision or IA can also be implemented in the simulation environment. To achieve that, some established open source libraries like the Open Dynamics Engine are used. The parameters for the physical simulation are all accessible when defining the robot model and a very accurate motor model can also be implemented. There is also the ability to use external modules to implement the high level controllers. Keywords: Robotics, Simulation, Sensors, Actuators.

Mecanum wheeled mobile robots have become relevant due to their excellent maneuverability, enabling omnidirectional motion in constrained environments as a requirement in industrial automation, logistics, and service robotics. This paper addresses a low-level controller based on the H-Infinity (H-infinity) control method for a four-wheel Mecanum mobile robot. The proposed controller ensures stability and performance despite model uncertainties and external disturbances. The dynamic model of the robot was developed and introduced in MATLAB to generate the controller. Further, the controller's performance is validated and compared to a traditional PID controller using the SimTwo simulator, a realistic physics-based simulator with dynamics of rigid bodies incorporating non-linearities such as motor dynamics and friction effects. The preliminary simulation results show that the H-infinity reached a time-independent Euclidean error of 0.0091 m, compared to 0.0154 m error for the PID in trajectory tracking. Demonstrating that the H-infinity controller handles nonlinear dynamics and disturbances, ensuring precise trajectory tracking and improved system performance. This research validates the proposed approach for advanced control of Mecanum wheeled robots.

SCARA manipulators are advantageous for their high-speed, precise, and repeatable operations, making them ideal for tasks requiring meticulous handling. This study introduces a Educational SCARA Manipulator tailored for robotics training in academic settings. Designed to be affordable and safe, it serves as a cost-effective alternative to traditional industrial models. Featuring a modular design with 3D-printed and easily accessible components, assembly and maintenance are simplified. Experimental evaluations demonstrate its reliable movement and effective collision detection, confirming its suitability for educational use. By combining accessibility with functionality, the study highlights the potential of affordable robotics platforms to enhance educational outcomes, providing hands-on experience in automation and robotics fields.

This paper compares five PID controller architectures for robotic manipulator position control, addressing the challenge of maintaining performance under varying inertial loads while providing accessible implementations for research and education. The five PID controller architectures for a three degrees-of-freedom SCARA manipulator position control are a basic Proportional-Derivative (PD), PD with Feed-Forward (FF), Parallel PD-PI-FF, Cascade PD-PI-FF, and Cascade PD-PI - FF with dead zone (DZ) compensation. The controllers were evaluated under varying inertial loads to assess robustness, extending beyond previous work's idealized conditions. Results show advanced configurations reduced errors by up to 64% compared to the baseline PD, with Parallel-FF achieving optimal dynamic performance and Cascade-FF-DZ excelling in steady-state control. The Feed-Forward addition enhanced tracking performance, while DZ compensation effectively eliminated limit cycles. The work provides open-source implementations and simulation environments, supporting research reproducibility and educational applications in robotics control.

Force sensors are essential elements of actuator systems, providing measurement and force control in different domains. This literature review discusses its applications in the industry, academic research, and educational domains. In an industrial setup, force sensors enhance efficiency, safety, and reliability within automation systems, predominantly robotic arms and assembly lines. In the academic environment, using such sensors fosters innovation within robotics and biomechanical studies, allowing for testing theoretical models and new methodologies. In education, force sensors help students understand basic concepts about mechanics and robotics from practical work. Understanding this diverse application allows one to design effective actuator systems, promoting technological advances and improved learning experiences. With this literary review, the aim is to gain an understanding of the state of the art in force sensor actuators applied in various areas, such as academia, education, and industry.

Control of legged robots is a complex task involving high degree of freedom underactuated systems with contact constraints. This work presents a control architecture which leverages simplifications and model segregation in an attempt to develop a transparent solution to the locomotion problem. By splitting a robot’s model into a set of legs and a main body, each of these smaller dimension components become easier to analyze and a controller is developed for each of them. The controllers’ interface is done with the wrenches applied by each leg, making the distribution of the leg controllers’ inputs linear. The different controllers are tested in a 2D simulation.

This document presents the Tacks summary of Trends on Gamification, Generative AI, Multidisciplinary Technological Resources, Engineering Education, New Trends in Mechatronics, Diversity Gap in STEM, Laboratories in STEM Education at TEEM 2023, which was held in Bragança (Portugal) from October 25–27. These sessions were held as tracks of the International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (TEEM’23).

Worldwide, forests have been harassed by fire in recent years. Either by human intervention or other reasons, the history of the burned area is increasing considerably, harming fauna and flora. It is essential to detect an early ignition for fire-fighting authorities can act quickly, decreasing the impact of forest damage impacts. The proposed system aims to improve nature monitoring and improve the existing surveillance systems through satellite image recognition. The soil recognition via satellite images can determine the sensor modules’ best position and provide crucial input information for artificial intelligence-based systems. For this, satellite images from the Sentinel-2 program are used to generate forest density maps as updated as possible. Four classification algorithms make the Tree Cover Density (TCD) map, consisting of the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and K-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN), which identify zones by training known regions. The results demonstrate a comparison between the algorithms through their performance in recognizing the forest, grass, pavement, and water areas by Sentinel-2 images.

This paper presents the development of a polishing prototype with a rotating sponge to be applied in the automation of a finishing process for the ceramic industry, focusing on increasing mechanical robustness. The prototype includes an AC motor, encoder, microcontroller, motor drive, and a collaborative robot to assist in the tests. Validation experiments related to the speed and force control were performed followed by the trajectory control tests using pieces printed using 3D printing technology to simulate the ceramic pieces. The results were satisfactory and showed a good performance of the polishing prototype, being this a good teaching aid tool to assist in the teaching and practical classes of mechatronics.