The s-bot is a small (15 cm)
differential wheeled (with additional
tracks)
mobile robot developed at the LIS (Laboratory of Intelligent Systems) at the
EPFL in
Lausanne,
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 ...
between 2001 and 2004. Targeted to swarm robotics, a field of
artificial intelligence, it was developed within the Swarm-bots project, a Future and Emerging Technologies project coordinated by Prof.
Marco Dorigo. Built by a small team of engineers (
Francesco Mondada,
André Guignard
André Guignard is a Swiss engineer initially educated as a watchmaker. He is the creator of the mechanic of the Khepera, the S-bot and several other mobile robots.
Working at the LAMI of the EPFL with Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud, he designed ...
,
Michael Bonani
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...
and
Stéphane Magnenat
Stéphane is a male French given name an equivalent of Stephen/Steven. Notable people with this given name include:
*Stéphane Adam (born 1969), French footballer
*Stéphane Agbre Dasse (born 1989), Burkinabé football player
*Stéphane Allagnon, ...
) of the group of Prof.
Dario Floreano
Dario Floreano (born 1964 in San Daniele del Friuli, Italy) is a Swiss-Italian roboticist and engineer. He is director of the Laboratory of Intelligent System (LIS) at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland as well as ...
and with the help of student projects, it is considered at the time of completion as one of the most complex and featured robots ever for its size. The s-bot was ranked on position 39 in the list of “The 50 Best Robots Ever” (fiction or real) by the
Wired magazine in 2006.
Purpose and use of the s-bot
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
In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a p ...
sensor
A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon.
In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...
, 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.
Technical details
General
* 12 cm diameter
* 15 cm height
* 660 g
* 2
LiIon
A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also se ...
batteries
* 1 hour autonomy moving
Control
* 400
MHz custom
XScale CPU
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...
board, 64 MB of
RAM, 32 MB of
flash memory
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...
* 12 distributed
PIC microcontroller for low-level handling
* Custom
Linux port running Familiar
*
Wi-Fi
Actuators
* 2 treels
* turret rotation
* rigid gripper elevation
* rigid gripper
* 3 axis side arm
* side arm gripper
Sensors
* 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 humiditiy 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
LEDS
* 8 × RGB
Light-emitting diodes around the turret
* red
Light-emitting diodes in grippers
Special abilities
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.
Integrated software
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.
References
;Notes
*
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
PDFBibTeX
* 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
PDFBibTeX
* 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
PDFBibTex
Peer-reviewed scientific publication record
General public press coverage
{{refend
External links
Swarm-bots project homepage
- The project in which the s-bot was developed.
Future and Emerging Technologies
- The IST program in which the swarm-bots project takes place.
Information Society Technologies
- The European Union research activity in which the FET program takes place.
LIS
- The lab where the s-bot was developed.
Swarmbots page at LIS
- Pictures and video of the s-bot
Hobbyist robots
Differential wheeled robots
2004 robots
Robots of Switzerland
Multi-robot systems
Tracked robots
Micro robots