Abstract:This paper describes the Pogobot, an open-source and open-hardware platform specifically designed for research involving swarm robotics. Pogobot features vibration-based locomotion, infrared communication, and an array of sensors in a cost-effective package (approx. 250~euros/unit). The platform's modular design, comprehensive API, and extensible architecture facilitate the implementation of swarm intelligence algorithms and distributed online reinforcement learning algorithms. Pogobots offer an accessible alternative to existing platforms while providing advanced capabilities including directional communication between units. More than 200 Pogobots are already being used on a daily basis at Sorbonne Universit\'e and PSL to study self-organizing systems, programmable active matter, discrete reaction-diffusion-advection systems as well as models of social learning and evolution.
Abstract:We compare glassy dynamics in two liquids that differ in the form of their interaction potentials. Both systems have the same repulsive interactions but one has also an attractive part in the potential. These two systems exhibit very different dynamics despite having nearly identical pair correlation functions. We demonstrate that a properly weighted integral of the pair correlation function, which amplifies the subtle differences between the two systems, correctly captures their dynamical differences. The weights are obtained from a standard machine learning algorithm.