See how we balanced robots and an internship - literally

The power of 5G network technology for robot communication

I’m Marleen Roubos, and together with my classmate, Yannick van Dolen, I am studying Technical Computer Science at Avans University of Applied Science in Breda, the Netherlands. During our internship at Ericsson, I developed and built eight self-balancing robots, while Yannick focused on the development of an Android app and an accurate location determination solution. Think GPS, but more accurate and suitable for indoor environments.

We assigned each robot its own color and name, and when in the correct order, the first letter of each name presented the name ERICSSON. Clever, right?

We wanted to show how technology could enable us to smoothly control the robots via the Android app while indoors, either manually or automatically. If in automatic mode, the robots were able to drive themselves without human interference, and to make it easier to let them do their own thing, Yannick made the steering controls disappear on the Android app. While in self-driving mode, the robots could also communicate with the robot in front, enabling them to follow it while avoiding any accidents. Should the robot happen to fall, there was no need for a human hand to assist as it would simply get itself back to its balancing state using its built-in arm and tail. That said, we had to work with very fine margins for error. In this instance, latency was key. If our calculations were to be just a few milliseconds late, the information would be already too old for the robot to be processed. So, it was very important that the robot has the information at the right time, in order for it to keep up its balancing act.

Our demo mimicked the Talking Traffic project, where Ericsson and other partners utilized the cloud and IoT to build a national Intelligent Vehicles and Road Infrastructure (IVRI) system. For the balancing robots, the idea was to use GPS to determine the location of other robots. But due to the lack of accuracy of GPS for this project’s demands, the team were able to calculate each robot’s position by mimicking GPS via a colored LED on each robot and tracking these with a camera, the camera application sends GPS like info to each robot so they know where they are.

Balancing Robots film

Exploring 5G opportunities in close collaboration

In the face of the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we still received so much help from the Ericsson volunteers, who visited us on a regular basis at the office, to check in on how the project was evolving and to offer any advice and support we needed. It really felt like some of our Ericsson team went the extra mile to share their own ideas and thoughts with us, which made for a really collaborative spirit and exciting dynamic—something that’s a little different for everyone nowadays.

I feel like the ethos and culture at Ericsson were amazing. We laughed a lot and despite COVID, we met with so many different people. Everyone was so willing to help us with all kind of different subjects, especially Jan Oude Vrielink, a solution architect at Ericsson, who was our supervisor and who worked with us every day. We felt like we found a place where we belonged and were able to develop and showcase all our skills!

Future 5G network technology collaborations

This demonstration contained all the critical elements of hardware, software, and networking. The space we worked in was so inspiring because it isn’t just an empty room where nobody goes, it’s actually a place where Ericsson shows off its newest and most innovative work, and where Ericsson experts are always within reach and more than happy to give support.

It was music to my ears to hear that a follow-up assignment is being talked about among the +31 Ericsson team, where even more Cloud and 5G aspects could be added. I just wish we could’ve stayed longer! It’s been so much fun; you can sometimes forget that this is a job. A huge thank you to Ericsson for the opportunity to collaborate with such a creative and innovative team.

Watch this space

Watch the video about the ‘Balancing Robots’ demo.

Learn more about the future of work with Ericsson 5G.

Find out more about internships at Ericsson.