ActivMedia Robotics

ActivMedia Robotics

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ActivMedia Robotics

An ActivMedia Pioneer 3-AT robot at the Georgia Institute of Technology

A Pioneer 3-AT robot in the Gazebo 3D robot simulator with a SICK laser rangefinder mounted on top

ActivMedia Robotics, former name of MobileRobots Inc, is a company in Amherst, New Hampshire that designs and manufactures autonomous research robots, commercial service robots and navigation systems for robot developers and manufacturers.

It was an early developer of autonomous robots ubiquitous to universities and often the first serious robot used by students involved in learning to be roboticists, as evidenced by the fact that it was chosen by Microsoft as the reference platform on which to implement their new Robotics SDK.

Following in the footsteps of Cybermotion and MDARS-I, the company developed security robots, but with more powerful computers and new autonomous techniques such as SLAM, Monte Carlo/Markov localization and modified value-iterated search path planning to create a new generation of autonomous robots for delivery and security purposes in hospitals, offices, labs and other buildings.

MobileRobots Inc. also makes building-mapping tools, an off-shoot of the robotics navigational technology they use, which creates building maps for use by the robots. Such maps have been used for homeland security purposes at military facilities, providing space utilization information at the same time they prepare the site for unmanned patrol by security robots.

MobileRobots has also been a pioneer in flexible intelligent AGV applications, designing the control system used by RMT Robotics to develop its ADAM SGV (Self-Guided Vehicle), used for complex pick-n-place operations, in conjunction with gantry systems and industrial robot arms, used in first-tier auto supply factories to move products from process to process in non-linear layouts. Smaller versions also work in semi-conductor plant clean rooms, carrying product from workstation to workstation.

In 2007, the company released a unique omni-directional Seekur security rover. The omni-directional wheels let it drive sideways as well as forwards and back, to perform in tight spaces. In early 2008, Seekur demonstrated autonomous navigation in GPS-blocked spaces around buildings.