DCU students create RoboCabs: is this the future of public transport?
26 March 2004

Robert Staunton, David Murphy, Kyle Wylie, Andrew Gallagher

Dr Sean Marlow [blue shirt], Dr Noel O'Connor [glasses] of DCU School of Electronic Engineering, Mark Tosetti of Farnell, Robert Staunton, David Murphy, Kyle Wylie, Andrew Gallagher, Mark Byrne of Farnell

Imagine a "RoboCab" that can drive, collect and deposit passengers, sound horns and flash lights - all without the assistance of a driver. Well, students in DCU's School of Electronic Engineering are working on just such a creation.

Competition to create the best mobile robot among the electronic engineering undergraduates at DCU has resulted in the creation of "Best of the Beast" by four third year students: Robert Staunton, David Murphy, Kyle Wylie and Andrew Gallagher.

According to Dr Sean Marlow, "the advancement of mobile robotics brings us one step closer to solving North Dublin's transport problems as "Robocabs" such as those built by the students could be developed to operate in the airport, Collins Avenue and Whitehall areas thereby avoiding the notorious port tunnel works."

Each RoboCab controls itself completely - there are no joysticks or remote controls sending instructions to the cars.

In order to construct the robots, 18 teams of students had to design the mechanical structure of their robot (using building blocks and various gearing mechanisms), decide what electronic sensors to use and how to connect these to the controlling micro-processor. They then had to write the software programme that provides instructions to the micro-processor and enables the RoboCab to drive itself and prick up passengers and carry them to their desired destination.

The robots were then pitted against one another and "Best of the Beast" put in the best performance to win the competition.