Biorobotics Laboratory BioRob

Locomotion in Modular Robots: YaMoR Host 3 and Roombots.

Abstract

Modular robotics is a relatively new but growing field constantly improving so as to give answers to some of the main issues of the future of robotics, like locomotion in extreme conditions (other planets, wars...), or more trivial but very challenging, like adaptable furniture. Roombots, a modular robot currently under development at the BIRG, a laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), is a new type of modular robots with a very uncommon shape and 3 degrees of freedom per module. The possibilities offered by this machine are difficult to measure yet, and there is a real need to understand and see what kind of locomotion these new modules can perform. The first part of the project focused on YaMoR Host 3, a program that facilitates the implementation of a Central Pattern Generator on a YaMoR robot and provides an interface to run optimizations (for locomotion). The second part was dedicated to Roombots, from the modelization to the characterization of the locomotion possibilities: degrees of freedom, motor forces, speed, collisions, etc.

Report and presentation:

report.pdf

Semester Project Defense.ppt