Extensible Hardware Architecture for Mobile Robots

The Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames Research Center has developed a new mobile robot hardware architecture designed for extensibility and reconfigurability. Implemented on the K9 rover, and currently being integrated onto the K10 series of human-robot collaboration research robots, this architecture allows for rapid changes in instrumentation configuration and provides a high degree of modularity through a synergistic mix of off-the-shelf and custom designed components, easing incorporation into a wide variety of mobile robot platforms. A component level overview of this architecture is presented along with a description of the modifications required for implementation on K10, followed by plans for future work.