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What is Pioneer?
Pioneer 1 and AT
Figure 5. The original Pioneer 1s
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 (two
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.
Figure 6. The Performance
PeopleBot sports an attractive body
design and bundled systems,
including voice synthesis and
recognition for human-interaction
research and applications.
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.
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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-
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Price/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.