
Chapter
1
Introduction
In this report we describe a real, fully-functional mobile robot
which operates in an unstructured environment. The robot,
called Herbert, is 18 inches in diameter and stands about 4 feet
tall (see figure 1-1). It has a three-wheel drive configuration
which allows it to turn in place and go forward and back. There
are two rings of 16 infrared proximity sensors on the body for
obstacle avoidance, and a flux-gate compass for navigation. To
provide more resources to control, there is also a 2 degree of
freedom arm on board with a parallel jaw gripper and a variety
of local sensors. To provide a richer sensory input, the