The eRobotics Approach as a Unifying Concept for eLearning and eSystems Engineering

Today, simulation systems are an essential part in research and development. While current entertainment domains fully exploit the technical possibilities of modern graphics hardware and state of the art rendering approaches, many Virtual Reality (VR) simulation system in scientific contexts put the focus on numerical results with rather functional representations. The novel research field of eRobotics can be understood as an eService related to advanced robotic applications in eSystems engineering using VR technologies. The concepts of semantic world models and graph databases provide new opportunities for the development of a new class of modern multi-domain VR simulation systems that combine the benefits of scientific simulations and attractive computer graphics. Corresponding eRobotics systems take the step from rather functional scientific simulations to attractive demonstrators, which can equally be applied in motivating virtual training and eLearning scenarios. In this paper, we will introduce novel system structures and techniques for the realization of practical eRobotics systems. Practical applications in a broad range of domains in industry, environment and space will demonstrate the benefits of this unifying approach, which correlates closely with the ideas of the recent trend of "Gamification".

[1]  Jurgen Rossmann,et al.  Combining realistic virtual environments with real-time sensor simulations for close-to-reality testing and development in eRobotics applications , 2014, 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing Automation (ROMA).

[2]  Andrew Howard,et al.  Design and use paradigms for Gazebo, an open-source multi-robot simulator , 2004, 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37566).

[3]  Robert F. Tobler,et al.  Separating semantics from rendering: a scene graph based architecture for graphics applications , 2011, The Visual Computer.

[4]  Joaquim A. Jorge,et al.  Engaging Engineering Students with Gamification , 2013, 2013 5th International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS-GAMES).

[5]  Olivier Michel,et al.  Cyberbotics Ltd. Webots™: Professional Mobile Robot Simulation , 2004 .

[6]  Jürgen Roßmann,et al.  A Semantics-Based, Active Render Framework to Realize Complex eRobotics Applications with Realistic Virtual Testing Environments , 2013, 2013 European Modelling Symposium.

[7]  Andreas Birk,et al.  Incorporating large scale SSRR scenarios into the high fidelity simulator USARSim , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Workshop on Safety, Security & Rescue Robotics (SSRR 2009).

[8]  Jan Van den Bussche,et al.  A Graph-Oriented Object Database Model , 1994, IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng..

[9]  Abhinandan Jain,et al.  ROAMS: planetary surface rover simulation environment , 2003 .

[10]  Jurgen Rossmann eRobotics: The Symbiosis of Advanced Robotics and Virtual Reality Technologies , 2012 .

[11]  Jürgen Roßmann,et al.  A New eRobotics Approach to Simulation-Based Analysis and Optimization , 2013, 2013 Sixth International Conference on Developments in eSystems Engineering.

[12]  Dieter Schmalstieg,et al.  Generating Semantic 3D Models of Underground Infrastructure , 2008, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[13]  Enric Cervera,et al.  Design of high quality, efficient simulation environments for USARSim , 2011 .