Pioneer 3™ Operations Manual

What is Pioneer?
Chapter 2
What Is Pioneer?
Pioneer is a family of mobile robots, both
two-wheel and four-wheel drive, including
the Pioneer 1 and Pioneer AT, Pioneer 2 -
DX, -DXe, -DXf, -CE, -AT, the Pioneer 2-
DX8/Dx8 Plus and -AT8/AT8 Plus, and the
newest Pioneer 3-DX and -AT mobile
robots. These small, research and development
platforms share a common architecture
and foundation software with all other
MOBILEROBOTS platforms, including Amigo-
Bot, PeopleBot V1, Performance People-
Bot, and PowerBot mobile robots.
PIONEER REFERENCE PLATFORM
Figure 2. Pioneer family of robots
MOBILEROBOTS platforms set the standards for intelligent mobile robots by containing all of
the basic components for sensing and navigation in a real-world environment. They
have become reference platforms in a wide variety of research projects, including
several US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded studies.
Every MOBILEROBOTS platform comes complete with a sturdy aluminum body, balanced
drive system (two-wheel differential with casters or four-wheel skid-steer), reversible DC
motors, motor-control and drive electronics, high-resolution motion encoders, and
battery power, all managed by an onboard controller and mobile-robot server software.
Besides the open-systems robot-control software onboard the robot controller, every
MOBILEROBOTS platform also comes with a host of advanced robot-control client software
applications and applications-development environments. Software development
includes our own foundation Advanced Robotics Interface for Applications (ARIA) and
ArNetworking, released under the GNU Public License, and complete with fully
documented C++, Java, and Python libraries and source code. Several third-party
robotics applications development environments also have emerged from the research
community, including Saphira from SRI International, Ayllu from Brandeis University, Pyro
from Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges, Player/Stage from the University of Southern
California, and Carmen from Carnegie-Mellon University.
PIONEER FAMILY OF ROBOT CONTROLLERS AND OPERATIONS SOFTWARE
First introduced in 1995, the original Pioneer 1 mobile robot contained a controller based
on the Motorola 68HC11 microprocessor and powered by Pioneer Server Operating
System (PSOS) software. The next generation of Pioneer 2 and PeopleBot (V1) robots
used a Siemens C166-based controller with Pioneer 2 Operating System (P2OS) software.
AmigoBot introduced an Hitachi H8S-based controller with AmigOS in 2000. From 2002
until Fall of 2004, Pioneer 3, Performance PeopleBot, and PowerBot robots also had an
Hitachi H8S-based controller with ActivMedia Robotics Operating System (AROS)
software.
Now, all MOBILEROBOTS platforms use revolutionary high-performance controllers with
advanced embedded robot control software based on the new-generation 32-bit
Renesas SH2-7144 RISC microprocessor, including the P3-SH controller with ARCOS, uARCS
Inside PatrolBot and our industrial “blackbox”, and AmigoSH for AmigoBot.
But you might not even notice the differences. Because we have taken great care to
ensure backward compatibility across ActivMedia/MOBILEROBOTS entire history of robots,
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