Pioneer 1 and AT, Pioneer 2 and PeopleBot

What is Pioneer?

Pioneer 1 and AT

Intended mostly for indoor use on hard, flat surfaces, the Pioneer 1 had solid rubber tires and a two-

wheel differential, reversible drive system with a rear caster for balance. The Pioneer 1 came standard with seven

sonar range finders (twoFigure 5. The original Pioneer 1s side-facing and five

forward-facing) and integrated wheel encoders.

Software-wise, the Pioneer 1 initially served as a platform for SRI International's AI/fuzzy logic-based Saphira robotics applications development. But it wasn't long before its open architecture became the popular platform for the development of a variety of alternative robotics software environments.

Many developers created software that interfaced directly with PSOS. Others extended the capabilities of Saphira (PAI and P-LOGO are two good examples), while others have implemented alternative robotics-control architectures, such as the subsumption-like Ayllu.

Functionally and programmatically identical to the Pioneer 1, the four-wheel drive, skid-steering Pioneer AT was introduced in the Summer of 1997 for operation in uneven indoor and outdoor environments, including loose, rough terrain.

Except for the drive system, there are virtually no operational differences between the Pioneer AT and the Pioneer 1: The integrated sonar arrays and microcontrollers are the same. The accessories available for the Pioneer 1 also work

with the Pioneer AT. Further, applications developed for the Pioneer 1 work with little or no porting to the Pioneer 2s and 3s.

Pioneer 2 and PeopleBot

The next generation of Pioneer Mobile Robots— including the Pioneer 2-DX, -CE, and -AT, introduced in Fall 1998 through Summer 1999, improved upon the Pioneer 1 legacy while retaining its many important advantages.4 Indeed, in most respects, particularly with applications software, Pioneer 2 works identically to Pioneer 1 models.

The ActivMedia Robotics Pioneer 2 models -DX, - DE, -DXe, -DXf, and -AT, and the V1 and Performance PeopleBot robots used a high-

Figure 6. The Performance

PeopleBot sports an attractive body

design and bundled systems, including voice synthesis and recognition for human-interaction research and applications.

4Price/performance ratio included! The much more capable and expandable Pioneer 2 was introduced four years later for just a few hundred dollars (US) more than the original Pioneer 1.