Alice

Alice is a micro robot development by Gilles Caprari at the Autonomous Systems Lab at Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne, or EPFL -- a University in Switzerland.   In a sense, Alice was the culmination of 8 years' worth of research efforts spanning a number of micro robots, including Smoovy, Jemmy, and Inchy.  From early on, Alice was designed to be a small, inexpensive, and simply-constructed autonomous micro robot.  Alice was quite an impressive robot, particularly when one considers the numerous extension modules developed and the large swarms that were constructed (videos showing ~90 robots operating simultaneously are shown below).  Alice measures in at just under  1 cubic inch (22mm x 21mm x 20mm or 9.24 cm³).   Fortunately, this robot sports a very open design -- documented both on the Alice homepage and in numerous publications (of which Gilles' PhD dissertation is probably the most illuminating).

Photos are usually the most telling, so lets take a detailed look at Alice.  Photos that show (from left to right), Alice's side, front, back, and bottom.

A number of features are plainly visible in these photos, including the large infrared receiver photodiode on top for communication with a remote, numerous reflective infrared modules for obstacle detection, and what appears to be a plastic (3D printed?) chassis.  From the Alice homepage, we also know that this robot used a PIC microcontroller, NiMH recharable battery, and flexible PCBs (such as Kapton, in earlier designs). 

One of the most interesting things about Alice is the numerous extension modules that were developed.  For example, the pictures below show the off-road (tracked) variant, solar powered variant, camera extension module, radio extension module, gripper unit, and the multi-robot recharge system.

However, one of the most impressive aspects about the Alice project is the sheer number of robots that were constructed.  The video / images below show a swarm of ~90 Alice robots operating simultaneously.  At the time of its construction, this was one of the largest swarms of mini/micro robots.

At one time Alice robots were for sale (to hobbyists and researchers), but this does not appear to be the case any longer.  However, the builders of Alice actually went on to found a company named Didel that still sells micro-robot components -- for example, they sourced the motors used on Pico, another micro robot.