A Single Motor Nano Aerial Vehicle with Novel Peer-to-Peer Communication and Sensing Mechanism

Communication and position sensing are among the most important capabilities for swarm robots to interact with their peers and perform tasks collaboratively. However, the hardware required to facilitate communication and position sensing is often too complicated, expensive, and bulky to be carried on swarm robots. Here we present Maneuverable Piccolissimo 3 (MP3), a minimalist, single motor drone capable of executing inter-robot communication via infrared light and triangulation-based sensing of relative bearing, distance, and elevation using message arrival time. Thanks to its novel design, MP3 can communicate with peers and localize itself using simple components, keeping its size and mass small and making it inherently safe for human interaction. Here we present the hardware and software design of MP3 and demonstrate its capability to localize itself, fly stably and maneuver in the environment using peer-to-peer communication and sensing.

Rollbot: a Spherical Robot Driven by a Single Actuator

Here we present Rollbot, the first spherical robot capable of controllably maneuvering on 2D plane with a single actuator. Rollbot rolls on the ground in circular pattern and controls its motion by changing the curvature of the trajectory through accelerating and decelerating its single motor and attached mass. We present the theoretical analysis, design, and control of Rollbot, and demonstrate its ability to move in a controllable circular pattern and follow waypoints.

PCBot: a Minimalist Robot Designed for Swarm Applications

Complexity, cost, and power requirements for the actuation of individual robots can play a large factor in limiting the size of robotic swarms. Here we present PCBot, a minimalist robot that can precisely move on an orbital shake table using a bi-stable solenoid actuator built directly into its PCB. This allows the actuator to be built as part of the automated PCB manufacturing process, greatly reducing the impact it has on manual assembly. Thanks to this novel actuator design, PCBot has merely five major components and can be assembled in under 20 seconds, potentially enabling them to be easily mass-manufactured. Here we present the electro-magnetic and mechanical design of PCBot. Additionally, a prototype robot is used to demonstrate its ability to move in a straight line as well as follow given paths.

Distributed Localization without Direct Communication Inspired by Statistical Mechanics

Distributed localization is essential in many robotic collective tasks such as shape formation and self-assembly.Inspired by the statistical mechanics of energy transition, this paper presents a fully distributed localization algorithm named as virtual particle exchange (VPE) localization algorithm, where each robot repetitively exchanges virtual particles (VPs) with neighbors and eventually obtains its relative position from the virtual particle (VP) amount it owns. Using custom-designed hardware and protocol, VPE localization algorithm allows robots to achieve localization using sensor readings only, avoiding direct communication with neighbors and keeping anonymity. Moreover, VPE localization algorithm determines the swarm center automatically, thereby eliminating the requirement of fixed beacons to embody the origin of coordinates. Theoretical analysis proves that the VPE localization algorithm can always converge to the same result regardless of initial state and has low asymptotic time and memory complexity. Extensive localization simulations with up to 10000 robots and experiments with 52 lowcost robots are carried out, which verify that VPE localization algorithm is scalable, accurate and robust to sensor noises. Based on the VPE localization algorithm, shape formations are further achieved in both simulations and experiments with 52 robots, illustrating that the algorithm can be directly applied to support swarm collaborative tasks.