uBot-1



uBot-1

uBot-1 was deployed in teams of as many as 10's of reconfigurable copies in a distributed sensor network. Each platform utilized a Motorola 68332 processor for low-level motor control and IR proximity sensing. A StrongARM based SBC was employed for high-level programming and wireless connectivity. The platform had differential steering and casters at the front and rear for static stability. The IR proximity sensors were placed on each of the 8 edges to form an entire ring of coverage and a color camera could be mounted to accommodate either a standard machine vision lens or an omni-directional lens. A team of uBot-1s could maintain line-of-sight constraints while exploring unknown maze-like environments.


Papers

Thibodeau, B.J., Fagg, A.H., Levine, B.N., Signal Strength Coordination for Cooperative Mapping, University of Massachusetts Amherst Computer Science Technical Report #04-64, July 2004. (pdf : 296KB)

Sweeney, J.D., Li, H., Grupen, R.A., and Ramamritham, K., Scalability and Schedulability in Large, Coordinated, Distributed Robot Systems, Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Taipei, Taiwan, May 2003 © 2003 IEEE. (pdf : 101KB)

Sweeney, J., Brunette, TJ, Yang, Y., and Grupen, R., Coordinated Teams of Reactive Mobile Platforms, Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, Washington, D.C. May, 2002 © 2002 IEEE. (pdf : 274,244 bytes; ps.gz : 234,979 bytes)

Videos


Maze Search

The uBot-1 navigating a maze while maintaining line-of-sight constraint. (avi)





Hardware Description:

Sensor layers:
Color NTSC CCD vision
Sharp GP2D12 IR proximity detectors

Communication:
VideoComm Technologies UHF NTSC transmitter
Orinoco Wavelan

Main Processing:
ADS Bitsy StrongArm Computer (206Mhz)

  • PC Card slot for wireless transceiver
  • ADSmartIO™

Motion Control layer:
K-Team Kameleon with Robotics Extension Board
* Motorola 68376 Processor 22Mhz

  • KOS Real-time Operating System
  • 1Mb Flash ROM, 1Mb RAM
  • 4 H-bridge motor drivers
  • encoder feedback with PID
  • Onboard A/D converter

Mobility layer:
10 1.2V 3AH Panasonic NiMH batteries
MicroMo 12V permanent magnet gearhead motors
Belt driven drive train
Retrofit rollerblade wheels