Towards Open Architectures for Mobile Robots: ZeeRO

Ant Intelligent Robot: A Versatile and Low Cost Miniature Mobile Robot Platform for Swarm Robotics Research and Education

“…Reviews on multi-agent research areas for swarm robotics can be found in [19] [37] and a more recent review on swarm robotics multi-agent engineering can be found in [28]. In order to support the requirements of these multirobot systems the individual robot designs are task centric [5] [7][13] [16] [25] or make tradeoffs between: cost, modularity, size, processing power, energy consumption, versatility of sensory systems and communication capabilities, robustness , ease of use and monitoring [1][2][3][4] Early work on mobile robot designs used in swarm robotics research and education was done by Mondada et al [1]. This work featured Khepera, a small robot with only a 55 mm diameter, but very limited processing power, flexibility and ease of monitoring.…”

“…It also has a modular hardware design and multiple robots can be collectively monitored through a radio link. Several other mobile robot designs are relevant to our own: S-bot [2], JL-I [7], ZeeRO [4], Kobot [12], Centibots [5], Bebot [20], communication capabilities using IR sensors, have wireless or Bluetooth for long range communication and multi-robot monitoring, are equipped with a vision sensor and have sizes ranging from 120 mm to approximately 350mm in diameter. Some of the designs also have modular hardware architecture which may provide an increased robustness in the face of various hardware failures.…”

Towards Simulation of Custom Industrial Robots

“…Using open architecture and/or modular design lead to multi-purpose controllers. In order to develop robot control algorithms, the robot controller must ensure a high degree of efficiency, modularity and scalability Lazea et al, 2006). In our project the robot controller has an open architecture design both from the software and hardware point of view.…”