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
Technical Specifications
Main Features
- Dimensions: 22mm x 21mm x 20mm
- Velocity: 40 mm/s
- Power consumption: 12 - 17 mW
- Communication: local IR 6 cm, IR & radio 10 m
- Power autonomy: up to 10 hours
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
Extention modules
- Linear camera 102 pixels
- Bidirectional radio communication
- Tactile sensors
Projects and applications
- 20 robots at swiss Expo.02
- RobOnWeb
- Navigation and map building
- Soccer Kit : 2 teams of 3 Alices play socceron a 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
External links
- Homepage - The homepage of the Alice microrobot
- ASL - The lab where the Alice was developed
References
- Caprari, G. Autonomous Micro-Robots: Applications and Limitations. PhD Thesis EPFL n° 2753 PDF Abstract
