NorCal Robotics - All Terrain Robotic Vehicle

The All Terrain Robotic Vehicle platform has been a testbed for NorCal Robotics for several years. It has gone through several major hardware revisions, but the basic platform has been a rear wheel drive, front wheel steering, wheeled platform designed to handle outdoor operation over generally mild terrain like ungroomed paved or unpaved roads, grass, rocks, snow, or gravel.

The "brains" of the "ATRV" prototype has been the laptop PC mounted onboard. This offers the flexibility to control the robot either through teleoperation, or autonomously, using machine vision to direct the robot programatically. The teleoperation tools can work either using a Windows client/server dedicated program, or using Java, the system can be controlled from an applet running in a web browser.

Presently under construction, the next iteration of the "ATRV" prototype will be a four-wheeled vehicle, using aluminum side rails as a frame.