WolfBot: A distributed mobile sensing platform for research and education

Abstract

Mobile sensor networks are often composed of agents with weak processing capabilities and some means of mobility. However, recent developments in embedded systems have enabled more powerful and portable processing units capable of analyzing complex data streams in real time. Systems with such capabilities are able to perform tasks such as 3D visual localization and tracking of targets. They are also well-suited for environmental monitoring using a combination of cameras, microphones, and sensors for temperature, air-quality, and pressure. Still there are few compact platforms that combine state of the art hardware with accessible software, an open source design, and an affordable price. In this paper, we present an indepth comparison of several mobile distributed sensor network platforms, and we introduce the WolfBot platform which offers a balance between capabilities, accessibility, cost and an opendesign. Experiments analyzing its computer-vision capabilities, power consumption, and system integration are provided.Index Terms-Distributed sensing platform, Swarm robotics, Open design platform.

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

“…As such, there is a large body of work addressing key application areas: bio-inspired systems [6], coordination [15], task-allocation [27], communication [11], localization and mapping [30] and control approach [9], just to name a few. 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].…”

“…Communication and sensing is limited and is accomplished through a single IR sensor. Wolfbot [28] is another low cost robot design ($550 in parts) with an approximate diameter of 178 mm that is built around the popular Beaglebone embedded board [32]. The design incorporates an accelerometer, a vision sensor with integrated microphone, 5 IR sensors and wireless communication.…”

Colias IV: The Affordable Micro Robot Platform with Bio-inspired Vision

“…On the other hand, small-scale robots, especially micro robots that are usually employed in the swarm robotic research, can hardly benefit from visual sensing. Even though the growth of interest in swarm robotics has brought us a wide range to choose from [2][3][4][5][6], there is still no optimal design for all desires. One of the greatest challenges is the trade-off between limited computational resources on-board and the requirements for image processing in real-time.…”

“…For example, the E-puck [2], Swarm-bot [3] or mROBerTO [4] are short of RAM size or sufficient CPU frequency. On the other hand, for those robots whose CPU are strong enough, they are usually oversized for swarm scenarios, such as Kobot [5], Wolfbot [6] and Khepera III. The comparison of related robot platform are illustrated in table 1.…”

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“…The WolfBot [10] is an open source platform designed for distributed sensing and education. It has a sensor suite for communication, localization, and on-board image processing.…”