Thesis Presentation

This document describes the software architecture for the Personal Exploration Rover (PER), a robot designed to be a museum exhibit. Museum visitors interact with the rover by choosing a rock that the rover will test for signs of life. To accomplish the mission, the rover must be able to take a 360 degree panorama, turn accurately, drive without hitting obstacles, scan for rocks and autonomously approach them. A PC controls the rover over an 802.11b wireless network which is sometimes congested. The system described in this paper is currently running at museums across the country. Following the success of the museum exhibit, an API was developed so that intermediate computer programmers can easily create behaviors for the rover. The API includes new computer vision commands, such as color tracking and motion detection, which are implemented on the rover.

Thesis Committee:
Illah Nourbakhsh, Chair
Matt Mason