S-bot mobile robot

This is a research robot, aimed at studying teamwork and inter-robot communication. To do this, the s-bots have several special abilities:

• Using their gripper (red in the photos), they can connect. Then they can, for instance, pass over gap and steps where a single robot would have failed.
• Using their integrated force sensor, they can coordinate to retrieve an object to a certain location without the use of explicit communication. This is the way ants bring preys to the nest.

Of course, all other sensors and actuators, also found on other robots, can be used to do teamwork such as food foraging.

• 12 cm diameter
• 15 cm height
• 660 g
• 2 LiIon batteries
• 1 hour autonomy moving

• 400 MHz custom XScale CPU board, 64 MB of RAM, 32 MB of flash memory
• 12 distributed PIC microcontroller for low-level handling
• Custom Linux port running Familiar
• Wi-Fi

Image:Sbot mobile robot passing step.jpeg

• 2 treels{{typo help inline|reason=similar to streels|date=November 2019}}
• turret rotation
• rigid gripper elevation
• rigid gripper
• 3 axis side arm
• side arm gripper

• 15 infrared sensors around the turret
• 4 infrared sensors below the robot
• position sensors on all degrees of freedom except gripper
• force and speed sensors on all major degrees of freedom
• 2 humidity sensors
• 2 temperature sensors
• 8 ambient light sensors around the turret
• 4 accelerometers, which allow three-dimensional orientation
• 1 640×480 camera sensor. Custom optic based on spherical mirror provides omnidirectional vision
• 4 microphones
• 2 axis structure deformation sensors
• optical barrier in grippers

Image:Sbot mobile robot by night.jpg

• 8 × RGB Light-emitting diodes around the turret
• red Light-emitting diodes in grippers

Image:Sbot mobile robot passing gap.jpeg

S-bots can connect to other s-bots to create a bigger structure known as the swarm-bot. To do so, they attach together using their rigid gripper and ring. An s-bot has sufficient force to lift another one.

The s-bot features a custom Linux port running the Familiar Linux distribution. All sensors and actuators are easily accessible through a simple C API.

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;Notes

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• Mondada, F., Guignard, A., Bonani, M., Bär, D., Lauria, M. and Floreano, D. (2003) SWARM-BOT: From Concept to Implementation. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems 2003, IEEE Press. pp. 1626–1631. [http://lis.epfl.ch/publications/856.pdf PDF] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050512032954/http://lis.epfl.ch/publications/856.pdf |date=2005-05-12 }} [http://lis.epfl.ch/bibtex.php?ID=364 BibTeX]
• Mondada, F., Pettinaro, G. C., Guignard, A., Kwee, I., Floreano, D., Deneubourg, J.-L., Nolfi, S. and Gambardella, L.M., Dorigo, M. (2004) SWARM-BOT: a New Distributed Robotic Concept. Autonomous Robots, special Issue on Swarm Robotics, Volume 17, Issue 2–3, September - November 2004, Pages 193 - 221. [http://lis.epfl.ch/publications/swarmbot-hardware-final-lr.pdf PDF] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051028145309/http://lis.epfl.ch/publications/swarmbot-hardware-final-lr.pdf |date=2005-10-28 }} [http://lis.epfl.ch/bibtex.php?ID=365 BibTeX]
• Marco Dorigo, V. Trianni, E. Sahin, T. H. Labella, R. Gross, G. Baldassarre, S. Nolfi, J.-L. Deneubourg, F. Mondada, D. Floreano & L. M. Gambardella (2004). Evolving Self-Organizing Behaviors for a Swarm-bot. Autonomous Robots, 17 (2–3): 223–245. [http://lis.epfl.ch/publications/swarmbot-control-lr.pdf PDF] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051028154242/http://lis.epfl.ch/publications/swarmbot-control-lr.pdf |date=2005-10-28 }} [http://lis.epfl.ch/bibtex.php?ID=395 BibTex]
• [http://www.swarm-bots.org/index.php?main=2&sub=21 Peer-reviewed scientific publication record] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010215548/http://www.swarm-bots.org/index.php?main=2&sub=21 |date=2007-10-10 }}
• [http://www.swarm-bots.org/index.php?main=2&sub=24 General public press coverage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007232734/http://www.swarm-bots.org/index.php?main=2&sub=24 |date=2007-10-07 }}

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• [http://www.swarm-bots.org/ Swarm-bots project homepage] - The project in which the s-bot was developed.
• [http://www.cordis.lu/ist/fet Future and Emerging Technologies] - The IST program in which the swarm-bots project takes place.
• [http://www.cordis.lu/ist Information Society Technologies] - The European Union research activity in which the FET program takes place.
• [http://lis.epfl.ch LIS] - The lab where the s-bot was developed.
• [http://lis.epfl.ch/research/projects/SwarmBots/index.php Swarmbots page at LIS] - Pictures and video of the s-bot

Category:Hobbyist robots

Category:Differential wheeled robots

Category:2004 robots

Category:Robots of Switzerland

Category:Multi-robot systems

Category:Tracked robots

Category:Micro robots