Programmable MARS (Micro Autonomous Robotic System)

We designed a new type of Micro Autonomous Robotic System which size is 20" cubic. The conventional line trace robot we have introduced in Video Proc.'94 has wire for energy supply and its logic is simple and fixed. The MARS is full autonomous robotic system, that is, actuator, sensor, computer, and battery are build in the body. And we can transmit and upload programs by infrared ray, achieve different kinds of behaviors depend on the program. This communication and programmable function becomes main features of the MARS. We show 3 experimental results, which are the photo following behavior, the photo avoiding behavior, and the line trace behavior. The program of each behavior is uploaded by wireless. Distributed Robots 1 Khepera: The Optimal Tool for Development in Mobile Robotics F'rancesco Mondada, Edoardo Franzi, Andre Guignard and Jean-Daniel Nicoud Laboratoire de Microinformatique, INF-Ecublens CH-1015 Lausanne, SWITZERLAND E-mail: mondada@di.epfl.ch (Francesco Mondada)