Project
Selforganizing Robot System
- Mobile Robot -
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| drive module, connector module, top module individual mounting | |
Shortcuts: Drive Module, Connector Module, Top Module, Individual Mounting
Design
The mobile robot has a cylindric shape with a diameter of 20cm and a height of
~16cm. Due to the two independently driven wheels with their axis through the
robot's center it can do a spot turn to ease navigation close to walls, obstacles
or other robots. Each robot consists of three modules that are turnable against
each other with a vertical rotation axis. Each module is equipped with an own
FPGA to control the local sensors and actuators. A routing mechanism allows each
FPGA to send messages to any other - even on other robots. The mechanics is
contrived for even ground like office environment. For a reliable and short
electronical connection between the modules the wires are led through a hollow
shaft.
The drive module is at the bottom and contains the two driven wheels with
two additional balancing wheels and soma basic sensory allowing the robot to
navigate to some extent autonomously.
The connector module above has 4 connectors allowing the robot to
connect with other robots and/or the base station. Such a connection can be
used to have a reliable and - in contrast to radio signal based - scalable
communication channel. Furthermore it enables the robots to recharge their
battery provided a suitable power supply - the base station or a robot with a
power pack mounting - is connected to the network. From the mechanical point of
view the connection stabilizes the robots and enables the robots to determine
their relative position with much higher accuracy than in unconnected state.
The top module is mounted on the connector module and holds the
processor board and a bluetooth module for short-range communication. The
processors takes care of the high level robot control and is also able to
initialize all FPGAs on the robot through a single JTAG chain.
To make the robot suitable for a wide range of tasks it can equip itself with an
individual mounting at the base station connecting it to the top module.
This mounting can - and usually does - have it's own FPGA with mounting specific
additional electronics and communicates with the top module via LVDS. Due to this
modular design a wide range of mountings are possible.