Pioneer 2 / PeopleBot - Manual (Page 15)

ActivMedia Robotics
To the relief of those who have invested years in developing software for Pioneer 1,
Pioneer 2 truly does combine the best of the new mobile robot technologies with the
tried-and-true Pioneer architecture.
Modes of Operation
You may operate your Pioneer 2 or PeopleBot robot in one of four modes:
! Joydrive
! Self-test
! Server
! Standalone
The Pioneer 2/PeopleBot microcontroller comes with 32K flash-programmable, read-only
memory (FLASH-ROM) as part of its Siemens 88C166 microprocessor, and an additional
32K of dynamic RAM: 64K total memory space for your standalone robotics programs.
But we don't recommend that you start learning C166 programming. Rather, the robot
comes to you installed with the latest P2OS robotics server software.
In conjunction with client software, such as ARIA, or Saphira running on an onboard PC or
other user-supplied computer, P2OS lets you take advantage of modern client-server
and robot-control technologies to perform advanced robot tasks. (See Chapter 6,
Pioneer 2 Operating System, for details.)
Most users run their ActivMedia robot in server mode, because it gives them quick, easy
access to its robotics functionality while working with high-level software on a familiar
host computer.
For experiments in microcontroller-level operation of your robot’s functions, you may
reprogram the onboard flash-ROM and RAM for direct and standalone operation of your
ActivMedia robot. We supply the means to download, but not the microcontroller's
programming software, for you to work in standalone mode.
In fact, the download utilities we provide for you to reprogram the 88C166-based
controller's FLASH and RAM also are used to update and upgrade your P2OS. We
typically provide the upgrades free for download from our website, so be sure to sign up
for the pioneer-users email newslist. That's where we notify our customers of the
upgrades, as well as where we provide access to Pioneer and PeopleBot users
worldwide.
Finally, we provide onboard software that lets you drive the robot from a tethered
joystick. And we provide some self-test programs that exercise your robot’s
microcontroller hardware and software. We examine these modes in some detail in
Chapter 5, Joydrive and Self-Tests.
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