Design and performance assessment of a prototype wireless controlled robot

The aim of this research was to develop a mobile robot, exploiting the GSM and GPRS technologies in an existing mobile telephony network for remote control and communication purposes. The robot (MGM1) is used as a technology demonstrator in centres and exhibitions with the purpose of making known to the public the importance of services such as SMS, MMS, Bluetooth and Web surfing using a phone browser. The robot is controlled remotely via GPRS using a mobile phone as a command centre. It is able to receive SMS and MMS messages sent to it and then reply back. Also, it takes pictures and sends these out on request as MMS. The work presented in this paper is about the system design and performance assessment, with a discussion of some of the main system sub-units.