Design and Control of the Mobile Micro Robot Alice

This paper describes the design methodology to build an autonomous mobile robot of just few cubic centimeters (2 x 2 x 2 cm). Starting from the expected features, the design path will be shown, going through solution proposition, component search, subsystems interconnections, several versions and ending to the final product. The second part of the paper will be dedicated to the control of such a robot which has implications in the control and software architecture. The overall design cycle results in the last version “Alice 2002” which has up to 10 hours autonomy with rechargeable battery, proximity sensors and remote control possibility. Furthermore many additional hardware modules like a radio or a linear camera can extend the basic capabilities. At the moment about 300 Alices exist and are used in various exhibitions and research programs.