22–26 April, 2025
Paphos, Cyprus

Joint Advanced
Student School
2025-mini

Virtual Robotics Controller Challenge

JASS (Joint Advanced Student School) is an annual international initiative to study emerging technologies using project-driven software development. The school is a place where students and professors from different countries gather for short-term, project-oriented, project-driven education in international teams. Over the course of 7-14 days, each team of students creates and delivers a finished project.

The topics typically studied include mobile devices, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, industrial applications, autonomous robotics and transportation, virtual reality, and many more.

Since 2024, in addition to the regular format, JASS has also been conducted as a shortened version (JASS-mini) dedicated to emerging narrow technologies.

The event includes the following types of activities:

Guest lectures and/or master classes on selected technologies.
Lectures and classes are provided by academic professors and industry experts. The main goal of each lecture is to give a good overview of the technologies; to help students to get a bigger picture of the particular domain, and to acquire a holistic comprehension of the problems, solutions, and challenges that exist.

Work on projects in joint international student teams.
Students will work within joint international teams (about 7 students per team) to develop small projects and apply their new domain knowledge to a particular sub-project. Each project is developed by the teams under supervised guidance.

Topic 2025-mini

Virtual Robotics Controller Challenge

Embedded programming and device virtualization

At JASS-2025-mini, our project is centered on a technical evaluation of mobile robot software through hardware emulation. The focus is on transitioning from a ROS2-based interface to a library-based approach, facilitating better performance. We aim to implement a Hardware Abstraction Layer for the robotic controller.

Motivation

It's no secret that entering robotics is quite challenging. You have to deal with physical devices that don't behave predictably, just like a program does. Dealing with hardware is difficult, even for those who can program in C and Python. However, despite the variety of robots, each is typically equipped with a controller, which contains a more or less standard software environment based on Linux or Robot Operating System (ROS).

5-day intensive project-based JASS-2025-mini will bridge the gap between your programming skills and the physical world of robotics. You'll dive deep into sensor operations and device control, developing a Hardware Abstraction Layer for a robotics laboratory. With almost all your time dedicated to hands-on project work, you'll learn to speak the language of hardware while leveraging your existing C and Python expertise.

Details

A specially designed Robotics Controller capable of emulating peripherals for devices equipped with GPIO headers will be the robot's controller, replicating its peripheral environment. This setup ensures that software testing is conducted in a fully emulated, safe environment, mitigating risks before deployment on actual hardware. The system consists of plugins that emulate various devices, including motors with encoder feedback for accurate motion control simulation, USB cameras integrated with dynamic image generation, Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) for orientation and acceleration data, Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors for distance measurements, and optional components such as OLED displays, LEDs, and a dedicated control button.

The dynamic image generation system for camera emulation includes a CLI application for creating virtual maps, allowing users to define parameters and structure for the simulated environment. The image rendering component generates realistic visual feedback based on the robot's current position and orientation within the simulated map, ensuring that the camera emulation provides contextually appropriate visual data.

Key technologies and equipment

Linux
C/C++
Unity / UE5 / any other game engine / gazebo - for image generation
driver libs

Software:

Hardware:

I2C
USB
SPI
Jetson Nano

22-26 April, 2025

Location: Neapolis University Pafos

Participants should be either undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate students at universities in Cyprus with strong software engineering and development skills. They should also be interested in new technologies, robotics, and the Internet of Things.

Participation is free. School language – English. JASS-mini 2025 will take place in Paphos (Cyprus) as an in-person event without accommodation provided. Participants are welcome to arrange their own stay. If one cannot attend in person, remote participation is possible, but task selection and available opportunities may be limited.

Our selection process will be based on your motivation, as well as the completion of a test assignment, the link to which you will receive after the application period ends.

The application deadline is April 8.

The test assignment is here, please submit the solution by 13th April 2025

Hightlights

The Organizing Team