Marga Chiri and his “SUPERB” creation.

EECS Student Likes to Drive from a Distance

I can't drive over here!" announced EECS student Marga Chiri recently. This wasn't a typical case of road rage, just a note of frustration during the presentation of his joystick-controlled robot car at the Summer Undergraduate Program in Engineering Research (SUPERB).

The program, geared to underrepresented students, is a way to gain valuable research experience, at the side of engineering faculty and graduate students. Chiri worked with EECS professor Kris Pister and graduate student Sarah Bergbreiter.

Chiri’s inability to maneuver his vehicle on the tight space of the presentation table prompted his nervous announcement. He moved the car to the floor of HP Auditorium where it was able to zip around freely. Audience members craned their necks to see, then oohed and ahed.

The innovation of this particular design is its price. While a typical prototype costs $3,000 to produce, Chiri's design only set him back $250. The secret was using off-the-shelf instead of custom parts. With lowered costs, larger networks of robots can be created, he said. This army of toy cars can use the mote technology under development by Berkeley faculty to explore and map floors of buildings without human intervention.

Chiri added to the concept of autonomous exploration with the advent of joy stick control, which allows for pursuit and evasion games. "If these car move too fast, the joystick can slow them down," he said.

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