(last updated README.md on April 5th, 2016)

Human Interface for Robotic Control is a final year design project in the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University. It came in 2nd place out of 42 groups consisting of 122 students. The application is written in C++ and the firmware was written in C.

In the past, developing robotic systems with complex hardware designs were great challenges due to unavailability of parts and high costs. The challenges with hardware limited the possibilities of developing robotics systems for time and budget constrained projects. With recent advances in 3D printing technology and motion sensor capabilities, integrating complex robotics hardware designs are now practical and cost-effective. This greatly expands the opportunities available for students, researchers, and hobbyists.

The vision of this project is to develop a low cost, high availability, embedded robotics platform. It can be used to serve as the foundations for developing robotic applications that replicate human movement. Possible applications for this project range from manufacturing plant assembly lines, to bomb diffusion, and remote surgery. Features such as remote control over internet and record/playback of user action are useful in widening the scope of future development opportunities.

The project must accomplish 3 major tasks: The hand motions of the user can be tracked and replicated on a robotic hand to a high degree of accuracy and low latency. The connection between the robotics hardware and the user terminal must be wireless. Finally, the project must incorporate features and development methodologies that allows further opportunities and easy integration on top of existing accomplishments.

A Leap Motion controller is used to interpret user hand motion, while an open source 3D robot InMoov serves as the hardware backbone. Servomotors and sensors are integrated to achieve actuation and feedback. A microcontroller with WiFi capability enables wireless connectivity. A graphical user interface and playback feature will augment the user experience.

(Click on the gif to go to youtube video demonstrating the project)

Gael Langevin, for providing the open source 3D printed robot (http://inmoov.fr/)

Professor Richard Dansereau, for acting as a supervisor to this project (http://www.sce.carleton.ca/faculty/dansereau.html)