Modularity in Small Distributed Robots

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Date
1999-09Author
Navarro-Serment, Luis E.
Grabowski, Robert
Paredis, Chris
Khosla, Pradeep K.
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This paper describes the development of small mobile robots for collaborative surveillance tasks. Each of the robots, called
Millibots, has only limited sensing, computation, and communication capabilities. However, by collaborating with other
robots, they can still perform useful tasks. The task that we are considering is collaborative mapping and exploration inside
buildings. To guarantee accessibility through narrow passageways (e.g. air ducts), the robots are very small, approximately
6x6x6cm. This size puts severe weight and power limitations on the design of the robots. To overcome these limitations, we
are developing a modular system in which modules with different sensing, computation, and communication capabilities can
be combined into a complete robot that is specifically designed for a given task. By making the design modular, we can
avoid carrying around capabilities that are not essential for the current task. The concept of modularity also plays an
important role in the design of the robot team. Here the "modules" are the individual robots and the design task addresses the
problem of determining how many robots to use and what kind of capabilities to select on different robots such that the
overall team is capable of completing its task. The paper addresses these design issues and illustrates them with the specific
example of the Millibot team.