Project: Idris

Technical details:

Picture of Idris

Idris is a 4 wheel drive, 4 wheel steering, electric vehicle, weighing about 350kg and driving at speeds of up to 10km/h. It's maximum paylod is 150kg and is about as big as an Austin Mini, only with Land Rover wheels! It was initially based on a robuCAR TT but many extras have been added and we have modified it in a number of ways too:

a 6DOF lightweight arm with a gripper.
a panoramic camera mounted on a stabilised 2-axes platform.
various additional sensors such as gps, inclinometre, compass.
a heavy-duty application tray.

Research / Projects:

The main use of Idris is for our research in field robotics and in particular visual navigation. Idris is particularly well suited for that because of its all-terrain capabilities.

Idris is also used in projects where moving specialist sensors in remote places is needed. One such project we are currently starting is on building detailed, precise topographical maps of places such as river beds and flood plains. This involves repeating again and again the same path in difficult environments carrying, in this case, a fast, high-resolution, 3D laser scanner.