TrollBOT: A Spontaneous Networking Tool Facilitating Rapid Prototyping of Wirelessly Communicating Products

Abstract

In early stages of product development, prototyping is an invaluable tool which allows designers to generate learnings and uncover unknown challenges which can be used to further construct design requirements. While generous use of prototyping early in the design process might reduce the risk of premature design decisions, it also demands significant investments in terms of resources such as time, material, and skills. Tools that allow designers to rapidly implement and test new functionalities are therefore desired. With wirelessly communicating products having become ubiquitous in modern society, designers should be comfortable designing products utilizing these technologies. In this paper we present an Arduino library, named TrollBOT, that facilitates rapid implementation of wireless communication between two or more Arduinos. The Arduinos form nodes in a tree topology using inexpensive nRF24-based radio transceivers. The library is constructed in such a way that a minimal amount of new language syntax must be learned. All nodes can be programmed from a single master node in an intuitive manner, significantly reducing the amount of code that needs to be written as compared to similar existing solutions.