The low down

The exterior couldn’t be simpler: a ball. But behind the façade, GroundBot is humming with advanced number-crunching technology. That’s why it’s as easy to use as an arcade driving game. Read on to get the low down on GroundBot.

Terrain capabilities
• Operates in most terrain including deep snow, ice, mud and sand.
• GroundBot also floats on water.

Navigation and endurance
• Speeds of up to 10 km/h (6 mph)
• Fast acceleration and fast stopping
• Turns in a small radius left or right
• Direct control via joystick / direct user interface
• Route-following outdoors and indoors via waypoint navigation system

Power
• Operating time 8-16 hours depending on mission profile
• Battery Li-Ion rechargeable
• Charging time 3-4 hours

Communication
• Wireless connection with Wi-Fi as standard
• Emergency/power control over a separate secure radio link

Payload
• Standard payload: two pan-tilt-zoom cameras, giving 360˚ field of vision
• Payload capacity is 2 kg

Sensors
• Two dual-band (L1 and L2) GPS receivers
• Main odometry sensors: accelerometers, gyros, magnetometer and rotary encoders

Video
• High quality video streams in MPEG-4 compression
• Sent via Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)

User interface
• Intuitive and simple to use
• Gives the operator situational awareness – the operator feels as if they are inside the ball
• Both 2D and 3D video feeds
• Can be operated from stationary and portable consoles/interfaces