Pioneer 3TM, 2TM manual Body, Nose, and Accessory Panels, Sonar Arrays with Gain Adjustment

Specifications and Controls

To engage AROS maintenance mode, press and hold the white MOTORS button, press and release the red RESET button, then release MOTORS. In the future, the white MOTORS button may engage other modes, such as when in AROS standalone mode.

Body, Nose, and Accessory Panels

Your ActivMedia robot’s sturdy, but lightweight aluminum body houses the batteries, drive motors, electronics, and other common components, including the front and rear sonar arrays. The body also has sufficient room, with power and signal connectors, to support a variety of robotics accessories inside, including an A/V wireless surveillance system, radio modems or radio Ethernet, onboard computer, laser range finder, and more.

On all models except the Pioneer 2-CE, a hinged rear door gives you easy access to the batteries, which you may quickly hot-swap to refresh any of up to three batteries.

The nose is where we put the onboard PC. The nose is readily removable for access: Simply remove two screws from underneath the front sonar array. A third screw holds the nose to the bottom of the AT’s body. The DX nose is hinged at the bottom.

Once the mounting screws are removed, simply pull the nose away from the body.7 This provides a quick and easy way to get to the accessory boards and disk drive of the onboard PC, as well as to the sonar gain adjustment for the front sonar array. The nose also is an ideal place for you to attach your own custom accessories and sensors.

All DX’s come with a removable right-side panel through which you may install accessory connectors and controls. A special side panel comes with the onboard PC option, for example, which gives users monitor, keyboard, mouse, and 10Base-T Ethernet access, as well as the means to reset and switch power for the onboard computer.

AT’s come with a single access panel in the deck. Fastened down with finger-tight screws, the User Control Panel and onboard computer controls are accessible beneath the hinged door.

All models come with an access port near the center of the deck through which to run cables to the internal components.

Sonar Arrays with Gain Adjustment
Natively, H8S/AROS-based ActivMedia
robots support up to four sonar arrays,
each with eight transducers that
provide object detection and range
information for collision avoidance,
features recognition, localization, and
navigation. The sonar positions in all
Pioneer 2 and 3 arrays are fixed: one
on each side, and six facing outward
at 20-degree intervals. Together, fore	Figure 12. Pioneer 3 sonar array
and aft sonar arrays provide 360
degrees of nearly seamless sensing for
the platform.

7With older Pioneer 2 models, you also needed to remove the Gripper before removing the Nose. With the DXE, and newer DXs and ATs, the Nose and Gripper come off together, so you only need to remove the Nose’s mounting screws.

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