Alice mobile robot

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The Alice microrobot.
The Alice microrobot.

The Alice is a very small "sugarcube" mobile robot (2x2x2cm) developed at the ASL at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland between 1998 and 2004.

It was designed with the following goals:

  • Design an intelligent mobile robot as cheap and small as possible
  • Study collective behavior with a large quantity of robots
  • Acquire knowledge in highly integrated intelligent system
  • Provide a hardware platform for further research

Contents

[edit] Technical Specifications

[edit] Main Features

  • Dimensions: 22 mm x 21 mm x 20 mm
  • Velocity: 40 mm/s
  • Power consumption: 12 - 17 mW
  • Communication: local IR 6 cm, IR & radio 10 m
  • Power autonomy: up to 10 hours

[edit] Main Robot

  • 2 SWATCH motors with wheels and tires
  • Microcontroller PIC16LF877 with 8Kwords Flash program memory
  • Plastic frame and flex print with all the elecronic components
  • 4 active IR proximity sensors (reflection measurement)
  • NiMH rechargeable battery
  • Receiver for remote control
  • 24 pin connector for extension, voltage regulator and power switch

[edit] Extension modules

  • Linear camera 102 pixels
  • Bidirectional radio communication
  • Tactile sensors
  • ZigBee ready radio module running TinyOS

[edit] Projects and applications

  • 20 robots at Swiss Expo.02
  • RobOnWeb
  • Navigation and map building
  • Soccer Kit : 2 teams of 3 Alices play socceron an A4 page
  • Collective behavior investigations: video.mov 1 and 2
  • Mixed society robots-insects as part of the European LEURRE project
  • Investigation of levels of selection and relatedness on the evolution of cooperation in the ANTS project

[edit] External links

  • [1] - The homepage of the Alice microrobot at the Autonomous Systems Lab at EPFL
  • [2] - Autonomous Systems Lab at EPFL
  • [3] - Collaborative Coverage with up to 30 Alices
  • [4] - ZigBee ready radio module running TinyOS

[edit] References

  • Caprari, G. Autonomous Micro-Robots: Applications and Limitations. PhD Thesis EPFL n° 2753 PDF Abstract