**2. City Model and Libraries**

The smart city used in this project is a scaled model of a city neighborhood (Figure 1 left) represented by a rectangular city layout of 3.5 m × 4 m. This layout is made up of an external two-way road, surrounding a central part that contains a roundabout, where four two-way road sections intersect. There are four areas in the layout containing two buildings, one parking area and one green zone. The main elements related to robotics teaching are the traffic signs (Figure 1 right) that must be detected to control the movement along the

**Citation:** Juanatey, D.; Naya, M.; Baamonde, T.; Bellas, F. Developing a Simulation Model for Autonomous Driving Education in the Robobo SmartCity Framework. *Eng. Proc.* **2021**, *7*, 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/ engproc2021007049


Academic Editors: Joaquim de Moura, Marco A. González, Javier Pereira and Manuel G. Penedo

Published: 23 October 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

city, the lanes that must be followed to avoid running out of the road, and other elements that can be in the city, such as other Robobos or small figures that simulate humans or animals at scale.

**Figure 1. Left**: A general overview of the real Robobo SmartCity layout. **Right**: A snapshot of two different traffic signs with an ArUco marker.

As the school's budget is limited and they may encounter several difficulties both in acquiring and in mounting a real city model like the one presented above, a simulation of it has been created. The model replicates the real smart city mock-up and the real Robobo robot, providing the possibility to transfer the simulation result to the real robot directly. Developing and testing initial solutions in the simulated models and then switching them to real ones using the real Robobo is a highly efficient methodology for most schools.

The model runs under the CoppeliaSim simulator [6]. It is realistic and powerful simulator, especially in terms of the possibilities that the user has to control the scene, the physics, and the dynamics of the simulation. This simulation model is suitable for intermediate and advanced students with digital skills in terms of 3D design and programming. Only Python is supported, and the bridge for using the CoppeliaSim model and the real Robobo is straightforward, which is documented on the Robobo wiki [7].

To allow Robobo to move, sense, or interact with the environment in Robobo SmartCity, a series of libraries with different functionalities have been developed in the scope of this work. The aim of these libraries is to help and guide students in performing realistic programs while learning robotics and intelligence systems through autonomous driving. These libraries are [8]:


#### **3. Education Project Example**

This section is dedicated to presenting one specific project carried out by a student in his final undergraduate project at the Industrial Engineering school of the University of Coruña, to show the potential of the Robobo SmartCity for teaching advanced concepts in intelligent robotics.

The main objective was to improve the object detection library commented above. First, he had to test the real-time response of the library while taking images from the python stream. This functionality was tested in various situations within the city. For example, the student verified how the library allowed Robobo to avoid collision with other Robobos in the scene, as displayed in the left image of Figure 2. Moreover, to go deeper into his training about deep learning techniques, the student was assigned the task of training the original MobileNet model with new objects. Some of them were images of traffic lights (green, yellow, and red), used to improve the realism of the autonomous circulation of the robot in the city (Figure 2 right).

**Figure 2. Left**: Object recognition library detecting other Robobos on the scene. **Right**: Traffic sign detection library identifying the traffic lights on the scene.

#### **4. Conclusions**

A simulated model of the Robobo SmartCity education framework has been presented, together with some libraries developed to support intelligent robotics teaching at different levels. The model's abilities have been presented through a specific project carried out by a university student, showing the potentiality of the framework for teaching different concepts of robotics and AI that have impacts in real life.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.N., F.B.; methodology, M.N., F.B.; software, D.J.; validation, M.N., D.J.; formal analysis, F.B.; resources, T.B.; writing, M.N., F.B.; visualization, T.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Link to data.

**Acknowledgments:** This work has been partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of Spain/FEDER (grant RTI2018-101114-B-I00), the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union through grant number 2019-1-ES01-KA201-065742, and the Centro de Investigación de Galicia "CITIC", funded by Xunta de Galicia and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund—Galicia 2014-2020 Program), by grant ED431G 2019/01.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

