2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper presents an-source software tool developed for the Intelitek SCORBOT-ER 4u Educational Robot with a MATLAB front-end. This tool, referred to as the “ScorBot Toolbox,” provides a documented, user-friendly, and open-source tool for installation, hardware interaction, kinematic modeling, and visualization using MATLAB. This paper describes the motivation, development, features, and limitations of the ScorBot Toolbox; and illustrates its capabilities in the context of in-person and remote project-based-learning (PBL). Source code, documentation, and installation functions for the ScorBot Toolbox are available at https://github.com/kutzer/ScorBotToolbox.

In 2011, Esposito et al presented the “MATLAB Toolbox for the Intelitek Scorbot (MTIS)” which provides basic interaction between a 32-bit MATLAB and the USB version of the Intelitek SCORBOT-ER 4u. The motivation and inspiration for MTIS was driven by: (1) a desire increase hands-on exercises shown to particularly benefit visual and experiential learners; (2) popularity of Intelitek SCORBOT manipulators in education during the 1990s and early 2000s; and (3) a desire to follow a then recent trend of providing free, open-source software for robotic education and research.

The ScorBot Toolbox is inspired by both the success of MTIS in enhancing learning, and by over five years of experience using MTIS as a tool in undergraduate robotics coursework. As a result, the ScorBot Toolbox was developed incrementally with the following design goals: (1) Accessibility, (2) Consistency, and (3) Stability. In this context, accessibility is addressed by the ScorBot Toolbox using (a) installation and version control of the software, (b) 64-bit support, and (c) cross-platform compatible visualization tools; consistency is addressed by the ScorBot Toolbox using rigorous naming and syntax conventions across functions for both hardware and simulation; and stability concerns are addressed in the ScorBot Toolbox using (a) error handling, (b) error logging and bug identification, and (c) identifying the cause of and solutions for crashes.

For preliminary comparison, the capabilities of MTIS are compared to the ScorBot Toolbox using a comparison of developed code. Assuming utility of all content, capabilities are quantified in terms of the number of unique MATLAB functions, unique internal MATLAB functions (if applicable), unique MATLAB example scripts, total lines of actionable code, and total lines of comments. Noting that the ScorBot Toolbox leverages additional Toolboxes, results for ScorBot Toolbox will be provided using two values (X+Y) where X indicates code unique to the ScorBot Toolbox, and Y indicates code associated with support toolboxes installed with the ScorBot Toolbox. These results are summarized as follows: (1) number of unique MATLAB functions - MTIS 34, ScorBot Toolbox 128+243; unique internal MATLAB functions (if applicable) – MTIS 0, ScorBot Toolbox 12+41; unique MATLAB example scripts – MTIS 2, ScorBot Toolbox 16+24; total lines of actionable code – MTIS 846, ScorBot Toolbox 18,986+33,752; and total lines of comments – MTIS 636, ScorBot Toolbox 10,216+16,082.

Additional results demonstrate the similarity in syntax between the hardware and simulation tools included with the ScorBot Toolbox. The examples perform a simple movement exercise to highlight syntax and the difference between linear movements in joint space and task space.

Finally, an example of the digital twin capabilities created by the simulation tools developed as part of the ScorBot Toolbox are presented in the context of in-person and remote teaching. The example shown provides the annotated instruction figures used as part of an in-person robotic drawing exercise performed using the ScorBot ER-4u. This is compared to screenshots of the simulated exercised used during remote learning using the “ScorSimDraw” function included with the Toolbox.

In comparison to its predecessor, MTIS, the ScorBot Toolbox provides error handling, improved stability, simplified installation and updates, consistent function naming and syntax, extensive function documentation, and kinematic and 3D visualization simulation tools. Unlike MTIS, the ScorBot Toolbox supports hardware interaction on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows OS, and simulation tools are operational across all operating systems supported by MATLAB.