About the project
To design an Arduino Based Swarm Robotics Platform from the ground up.
Project Type : Group
Client : Bachelor's Thesis Project
Year : 2019
We decided to make a low-cost swarm robotics platform. Swarm robotics is an emerging branch that is interdisciplinary. It covers areas such as mechatronics, communication, and artificial intelligence.
Swarm of robots is efficient than a single robot, due to less hardware and small size; hence we prefer swarm. In our project, we planed the collective action of the robot to accomplish small tasks. Swarm uses a decentralized approach. The three primary functions are implemented; follow the leader in which agents follow a designated agent’s behavior, cluster formation in which all agents form a predefined shape or pattern. Out of these tasks, we were able to complete the two-way - communication and line formation. This was my final year thesis
project titled “Swarm Robotics and its Applications.”
These are the initial zero PCB designs that were implemented for testing. This is the image of the eagle file which was the final board that was produced.
The following images are of the agents that were designed after reviewing all the benchmark swarm projects in the category. Notice the 2 layer design which was borrowed from all the projects to simplify the PCB debugging and design issues. It simplified various issues of interferences and the PCB paths interfering with each other.
Final constructed Agent
Onboard prototyping Various PCB Prototypes Final Agent Construction
1. Software integration into the hardware needed some changes in the P.C.B. and vice versa. Various things
such as improper track placement, two or more tracks shorting together.
2.Hardware designs and sizes are shown on the screen, and the actual designs were different, which led to
errors and needs for glitches and errors in the board functioning.
3. Final bot assembly consumed current than anticipated. Thus, the current capacity of the battery pack had to
be increased.
My role in this project was to design the entire hardware and mechatronic design for the robot. The P.C.B.
design was optimized by going through multiple iterations of boards and going back and forth with the code
to change multifunctional pins. After testing three configurations, we were able to finalize the design. After
that, I decided to have the P.C.B. professionally made by a Chinese P.C.B. house called “Elecrow.”
My contribution in the project:
Challenges faced and solutions designed:
These are the initial zero PCB designs that were implemented for testing. This is the image of the eagle file which was the final board that was produced.
Rutvij Pathak , Pratik Shende ,
Chinmay Mahabal, Disha Parkhi ,
“SWARM ROBOTICS FUNDAMENTALS
AND APPLICATIONS”.
We've written this survey paper for researchers in the field of swarm robotics, so they can read up on what's happening in the different arenas of research. We've also tried to keep it interesting for non-specialists, giving an overview of the different approaches that researchers are using. We've focused on platforms that are well established, though we give an overview of development platforms as well.