Development of Custom Hardware and Software for Real-time Multi-robot System

Abstract

The Raspberry Pi 5, a standard single-board computer, offers powerful performance and compact size for a variety of industrial and educational applications. However, the diverse requirements of these applications often demand features beyond its existing hardware design. This thesis addresses these challenges by designing a custom I/O board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 (CM5), a custom three-port switch board, and by developing an embedded application to control robot motion. The study aims to overcome the Raspberry Pi 5’s limitations, offering an optimized solution for robotic applications. The methodology encompassed both hardware and software development stages. Hardware design involved analyzing the official CM5 I/O and KSZ8794 Evaluation Board reference designs, providing insights for the creation of a new custom hardware solution. Software development focused on a Python-based embedded application to remotely control robots via a laptop using a PlayStation 4 (PS4) controller. A series of tests was conducted to validate the work. The results indicated that the custom I/O board and switch board delivered strong performance, confirming the solution’s efficacy within a three-host network communication setup. This thesis demonstrates a reliable, cost-effective approach to multi-robot control, enhancing system efficiency. Future work could explore the implementation of Gigabit Ethernet for multi-camera streaming and further improve the hardware design to achieve even better performance. The study highlights the potential of customized embedded systems in advancing robotics.