Many small projects seem like they would benefit from low-power, low-bandwidth wireless connectivity. Commercial modules such as the excellent XBee series of devices exist, but are relatively large, expensive, and seem better suited to tinkering with the technology than integration into a finished project. Single-chip RF transceiver solutions are small and inexpensive, but require a fabricated PCB for every design. My goal with this project is to develop an inexpensive and small RF transceiver module that is flexible enough to use in the prototyping stages of a project while not being so general and large that it’s wasteful to use in a finished work.

Using electric field sensing hardware that I designed, I enabled Marvin, Intel Labs Seattle’s mobile manipulation research platform, to plug itself in to ordinary, unmodified electrical outlets. The robot only needs to know the approximate location of an outlet on its 2D map to drive up to it and precisely align the prongs with the holes in the socket by sensing the emitted 60Hz electric field.

Pretouch is a sense that is longer range than touch, but shorter than vision. Using electric field sensing hardware that I designed to fit inside a robot’s fingers, several robotic manipulation tasks are made easier or possible.