PocketBot project consists of three parts. The key part of the project is the robot itself – a tiny line following vehicle of a matchbox size. Furthermore, the robot is supported with an USB communication device and with a PC control application. Altogether, these three parts form a complex solution to the line following issue. Each part of the project will be described in this article.

Ferda and Fatima is a pair of simple robots controlled by microcontroller ATmega8. Our goal was to show that even with very simple electronics and mechanics (Merkur construction set, a czech version of Meccano) it is possible to participate in the Eurobot competition. It is also an example how your first robot could look like if you plan to start with robotics.

Eurobot 2004 has passed and for the curious who are interested how a fourth rank can be achieved at such a contest, we have gathered some information about Ester. Right now you can find here articles about the ball manipulation and the control software. We hope that the amount of information will increase gradually (e.g. articles about localization or movement control are in preparation).

Dana is the result of our effort devoted to the Eurobot 2003 contest. We have hopefully learnt from the past mistakes (at least some of them). This robot tries hard to be both smarter and simplier at the same time than our past bots . The result is the 21st place and Best Concept Prize.

Daisy was an alternative robot prepared for the contest Eurobot 2003. Daisy was significantly simpler than its sister Dana and again it turned out to be the most critical point. Daisy ranked at the 7th place which is quite an achievement for such a well known international competition.

Clara is a robot (I should say: “Clara was a robot”, because it has been already taken apart) built completely from Merkur (Czech version of Meccano). It was built for the Eurobot 2002 competition, and it was the very first robot The Short Circuits team put together. The goal was to show that even with minimal resources like Merkur you can still build a robot, which can compete at an international competition. Clara has won the Creativity / Innovation prize at the Eurobot 2002 competition.

Cecilka is the first reincarnation of our platform developed for the Barbora robot. The ball collecting mechanism was replaced with a custom made vacuum cleaner. This robot constituted the second Czech team at the Cleaning contest 2002 in Lausanne making Czech Republic second in the number of participating teams right after Germany with six teams. Despite the fact that Cecilka was not as successful as Berta we obtained many unique experiences that we can now share with you.

Berta is the winner of the Cleaning contest 2002! It is the prove that the simplest solutions are often the best. It has beaten its competitors with 2D range finders, cameras and a lot of processing power simply because it worked the way it was supposed to using only a front bumper and a microcontroller. Find out how eXtreme programming concepts work while building a robot.

Barbora was designed primarily to participate in the Eurobot 2002 competition. Another even more important motivation to build the robot was the desire to build an universal bogie to be used in the following competitions and to have a reliable platform for further research and experiments. Unfortunately we have not finished the robot in time to qualify to the competition. However it has shown to be an excellent drive while building the robot and it has certainly helped us to achieve what we have.

Alena was our first try in the robot business. It is a differential-driven platform powered by steppers with a gripper onboard. It can be controlled by regular PC over serial line or by palm-sized computer carried onboard. The robot has successfully qualified to the Eurobot 2001 competition in France and ended up at the 12th place.