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What is Pioneer?
What Is Pioneer? Chapter 2
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 ActivMedia
robots including AmigoBot™, People-
Bot™ V1, Performance PeopleBot™,
and PowerBot™ mobile robots. All
employ a common client-server
robotics control architecture.
Figure 2. ActivMedia Robots
PIONEER REFERENCE PLATFORM
ActivMedia robots set the standards for intelligent mobile platforms 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 ActivMedia robot comes complete with a sturdy aluminum body, balanced drive
system (two-wheel differential with caster or four-wheel skid-steer), reversible DC motors,
motor-control and drive electronics, high-resolution motion encoders, and long-life, hot-
swappable battery power, all managed by an onboard microcontroller and mobile-
robot server software.
Besides the open-systems ActivMedia Robotics Operating System (AROS) software
onboard the robot controller, every ActivMedia robot also comes with a host of
advanced robot-control client software applications and applications-development
environments. Software development includes our own foundation ActivMedia Robotics
Interface for Applications (ARIA), released under the GNU Public License, and complete
with fully documented C++, Java, and Python libraries and source code. SRI
International’s Saphira robotics development system with simulator and GUI, as well as
support for advanced localization and gradient-based navigation comes bundled, too.
Several third-party robotics applications development environments also have emerged
from the research community for ActivMedia robots, including Ayllu from Brandeis
University, Pyro from Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges, Player from the University of
Southern California, and Carmen from Carnegie-Mellon University.
Every ActivMedia robot also comes with a plethora of expansion options, including built-
in hardware support for sonar and bump sensors and lift/gripper effectors, as well as
serial-port and server software support for a number of sensors, effectors, and control
accessories, like an onboard PC system, automated docking/recharging system, laser
range-finder, 5-DOF arm, robotic pan-tilt cameras, and much, much more.
PIONEER FAMILY OF MICROCONTROLLERS AND OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE
The original Pioneer 1 mobile robot had a microcontroller based on the Motorola 68HC11
microprocessor and powered by Pioneer Server Operating System (PSOS) software. The
first generation of Pioneer 2 and PeopleBot robots use a Siemens C166-based
microcontroller and Pioneer 2 Operating System (P2OS) software. Now, all new
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