The e-puck is a small (7 cm)
differential wheeled mobile robot
A mobile robot is an automatic machine that is capable of locomotion.Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Lanzon, A.,Group Coordinated Control of Networked Mobile Robots with Applications to Object Transportation IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 2021 ...
. It was originally designed for micro-engineering education by
Michael Bonani and
Francesco Mondada
Francesco Mondada (born 17 March 1967) is a Swiss professor in artificial intelligence and robotics. He got a Master's degree in Microengineering at the EPFL in 1991 and a PhD degree in 1997. He is one of the creators of the Khepera and directed ...
at the ASL laboratory of Prof.
Roland Siegwart at
EPFL (
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
).
The e-puck is
open hardware
Open-source hardware (OSH) consists of physical artifact (software development), artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this ope ...
and its onboard software is
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
, and is built
[GCtronic](_blank)
an
AAI
and sold
[Cyberbotics](_blank)
, an
K-Team
/ref> by several companies.
Technical details
* Diameter: 70 mm
* Height: 50 mm
* Weight: 200 g
* Max speed: 13 cm/s
* Autonomy: 2 hours moving
* dsPIC 30 CPU @ 30 MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
(15 MIPS)
* 8 KB RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
* 144 KB Flash
Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Fictional aliases
* Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed:
** Flash (Barry Allen)
** Flash (Jay Garrick)
** Wally West, the first Kid ...
* 2 step motors
* 8 infrared
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
proximity
Proximity may refer to:
* Distance, a numerical description of how far apart objects are
* Proxemics, the study of human spatial requirements and the effects of population density
* Proximity (2000 film), ''Proximity'' (2000 film), an action/thril ...
and light (TCRT1000)
* color camera
A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...
, 640x480
* 8 LEDs
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...
in ring + one body LED + one front LED
* 3D accelerometers
An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of a body in its own instantaneous rest frame; this is different from coordinate acceleration, which is accele ...
* 3 microphones
A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public ...
* 1 loudspeaker
A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or " ...
Extensions
New modules can be stacked on top of the e-puck; the following extensions are available:[se]
extensions section at e-puck.org
/ref>
* a turret that simulates 1D omnidirectional vision, to study optic flow,
* ground sensors, for instance to follow a line,
* color LED turret, for color-based communication,
* Zigbee
Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios, such as for home automation, medical device data collection, and othe ...
communication,
* 2D omnidirectional vision,
* magnetic wheels, for vertical climbing,
* Pi-puck extension board, for interfacing with a Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...
single-board computer
A single-board computer (SBC) is a complete computer built on a single circuit board, with microprocessor(s), memory, input/output (I/O) and other features required of a functional computer. Single-board computers are commonly made as demonstrati ...
.
Scientific use
Since the e-puck is open hardware, its price is lower than competitors.[the e-puck costs around 950 CHF at time of writing, while the Khepera is around 3000 CHF] This is leading to a rapid adoption by the scientific community in research[A search on Google scholar of e-puck + mobile + robot](_blank)
returns 528 papers (2012-01-05) despite the original educational orientation of the robot.
The e-puck has been used in collective robotics
evolutionary robotics Evolutionary robotics is an embodied approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in which robots are automatically designed using Darwinian principles of natural selection. The design of a robot, or a subsystem of a robot such as a neural controller, ...
br>
and art-oriented robotic
http://adb.sagepub.com/content/17/3/179.abstract].
References
{{Reflist, 2
External links
Homepage
- the e-puck project homepage
- the e-puck homepage at Mobots, the group who developed the e-puck
e-puck at gna
- the Gna.org, gna page of e-puck onboard software
e-puck model
- Documentation of the e-puck model in the Webots
Webots is a free and open-source 3D robot simulator used in industry, education and research.
The Webots project started in 1996, initially developed by Dr. Olivier Michel at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ( EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzer ...
robotics simulator.
* Cyberbotics' robot curriculum - a robotics curriculum based on the e-puck robot
Micro robots
Robots of Switzerland
Differential wheeled robots
Open-source robots
Multi-robot systems