Abstract

In current robotics research there is a vast body of work on algorithms and control methods for groups of decentralized cooperating robots, called a swarm or collective. These algorithms are generally meant to control collectives of hundreds or even thousands of robots; however, for reasons of cost, time, or complexity, they are generally validated in simulation only, or on a group of a few tens of robots. To address this issue, this paper presents Kilobot, a low-cost robot designed to make testing collective algorithms on hundreds or thousands of robots accessible to robotics researchers. To enable the possibility of large Kilobot collectives where the number of robots is an order of magnitude larger than the largest that exist today, each robot is made with only $14 worth of parts and takes 5 minutes to assemble. Furthermore, the robot design allows a single user to easily operate a large Kilobot collective, such as programming, powering on, and charging all robots, which would be difficult or impossible to do with many existing robotic systems.

Highlights

  • A large group of decentralized closely cooperating entities, commonly called a collective or swarm, can work together to complete a task that is beyond the capabilities of any of its individuals

  • There is a wide range of active research topics that explore algorithms to control these robotic collectives, such as self-assembly [1], [16], [14], collective construction [4], [7], and exploration [6], [18], to name a few

  • An example of a scalable operation on a robotic collective is the programming of the I-Swarm robots [13]

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

A large group of decentralized closely cooperating entities, commonly called a collective or swarm, can work together to complete a task that is beyond the capabilities of any of its individuals. An example of a scalable operation on a robotic collective is the programming of the I-Swarm robots [13] In these robots, instead of plugging in a programming cable to each robot in order to update its program, each can receive a program via an infrared communication channel. A Robomote never has to be turned on or off manually, and the entire collective can be turned “on” in a fixed time independent of the number of robots These sorts of scalable operations are essential for collective operations, but at the same time, they should not dramatically change the robots’ capabilities, cost, or ease of manufacturing. The rest of this paper introduces a new robot, the Kilobot, which is a low cost robot with fully scalable operations This robot is designed to make testing collective algorithms on hundreds or thousands of robots accessible to robotics researchers. A large collective can be overseen by a single operator

KILOBOT DESIGN
Locomotion
Communication and Sensing
Controller
Power System
Robot Capability Demonstrations
A SCALABLE COLLECTIVE
Charging
Programming
Other Control
Findings
CONCLUSION
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