Behavior-based artificial intelligence in miniature mobile robot

An intelligent mobile robot that implements concepts of mechatronics, mobile robotics, and behavior-based artificial intelligence has been developed. The design process for such a mobile robot employs a concept of simple trade-off between the mechanical, electrical, and computational systems for the benefit of improving the robots overall system performance. The main features of the robot, named SCAVENGER, are to navigate freely in a controlled environment, search for one or more target objects with known characteristics (colored golf balls), and avoid the other objects as obstacles. A combination of infrared sensors, color detectors, and bumper skirts is used to facilitate navigation and object recognition. The robots brain consists of an on-board MC68HC11 microcontroller, which is programmed in C. The control software implements behavior-based artificial intelligence, where the robots overall intelligence is made up of layers of several simple and primitive behaviors similar to those observed in insects. In this work, the design of the robots subsystems, where the implementation of mechatronics is most in effect, is covered in more detail with a particular interest in object recognition and collection systems.