Mobile Robot Hardware Upgrade

A pair of mobile robots (Itchy & Scratchy) was constructed previously by an MSc student for cooperative outdoor applications. It had a rudimentary control system for movement via a joystick. In order to have a more autonomous system, it was necessary to upgrade the hardware on the mobile robot platforms. Initially, a computer upgrade was required. New motherboards and CPUs were purchased for the robots. The old DAQ card which used the ISA bus had to replaced with a newer PCI bus DAQ card. More infrared sensors were purchased to facilitate improved obstacle avoidance. A compass sensor was purchased to assist navigation. Deep cycle batteries were also installed to give the robots a longer operation time. The picture below shows one of the upgraded robots.

Fig. 1: Upgraded tricycle robot.