Exploring the Implementation of Complex Appearances on Small Robots

• Main Author: Knurek, Jeffrey
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Avdelningen för för interaktion och systemdesign 2007
• Subjects: Mobile Robots; Complex Patterns; Agent Communication; Computer Sciences; Datavetenskap (datalogi)
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-4717

The purpose of this project is the exploration of how autonomous robots could develop a language to communicate visual patterns. The idea is that each robot should be able to change their visual appearance depending on what its neighbors are trying to communicate. Thus, the robots should `talk' about their patterns, trying to influence each other. For this project we used the e-Puck robot, a small mobile robot developed by EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique F\'{e}d\'{e}rale de Lausanne) in conjunction with the see-Puck display. The display, developed by FAL (Future Applications Lab), consists of a matrix of 148 LEDs in a circular shape. During this project we looked into several methods of achieving communication though the sensors and actuators of the e-Puck robot. An additional area which was explored was the process of user interaction with the robots.