The Kurt Robot Platform

Kurt3D (Fig. 1) is a mobile robot platform with a size of 45 cm (length) $\times$ 33 cm (width) $\times$ 26 cm (height) and a weight of 15.6 kg, for which both indoor as well as outdoor models exist. Equipped with the 3D laser range finder, the height increases to 47 cm and the weight increases to 22.6 kg. Kurt3D's maximum velocity is 5.2 m/s (autonomously controlled: 4.0 m/s). Two 90W motors are used to power the 4 wheels. Kurt3D operates for about 4 hours with one battery (28 NiMH cells, capacity: 4500 mAh) charge. The core of the robot is an Inter-Centrino-1400 MHz with 768 MB RAM and a Linux operating system. An embedded 16-Bit CMOS microcontroller is used to control the motor.

Figure: Left: The pan-tilt camera system. Right: The autonomous mobile robot Kurt3D (outdoor version) equipped with the AIS 3D laser range finder and two pan-tilt cameras.