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GenGrid: A Generalised Distributed Experimental Environmental Grid for Swarm Robotics

Pranav Kedia, Madhav Rao

TL;DR

GenGrid addresses the need for accessible hardware platforms for swarm robotics by delivering a modular, open-source grid of sensing/actuation cells that support stigmergy-inspired communication via light. The approach combines LEDs for light-based cues, Hall-effect sensing, and magnet-based presence signaling to enable bidirectional robot-grid interactions and data-rich experimentation. Through hardware design details and a suite of validation experiments (gradient following, path planning, obstacle avoidance, collective transport, and shepherding), the work demonstrates low-cost scalability and reconfigurability for indoor swarm research. Overall, GenGrid lowers barriers to studying macro-level swarm behaviors from micro-level, resource-constrained agents and is compatible with a range of common swarm robots.

Abstract

GenGrid is a novel comprehensive open-source, distributed platform intended for conducting extensive swarm robotic experiments. The modular platform is designed to run swarm robotics experiments that are compatible with different types of mobile robots ranging from Colias, Kilobot, and E puck. The platform offers programmable control over the experimental setup and its parameters and acts as a tool to collect swarm robot data, including localization, sensory feedback, messaging, and interaction. GenGrid is designed as a modular grid of attachable computing nodes that offers bidirectional communication between the robotic agent and grid nodes and within grids. The paper describes the hardware and software architecture design of the GenGrid system. Further, it discusses some common experimental studies covering multi-robot and swarm robotics to showcase the platform's use. GenGrid of 25 homogeneous cells with identical sensing and communication characteristics with a footprint of 37.5 cm X 37.5 cm, exhibits multiple capabilities with minimal resources. The open-source hardware platform is handy for running swarm experiments, including robot hopping based on multiple gradients, collective transport, shepherding, continuous pheromone deposition, and subsequent evaporation. The low-cost, modular, and open-source platform is significant in the swarm robotics research community, which is currently driven by commercial platforms that allow minimal modifications.

GenGrid: A Generalised Distributed Experimental Environmental Grid for Swarm Robotics

TL;DR

GenGrid addresses the need for accessible hardware platforms for swarm robotics by delivering a modular, open-source grid of sensing/actuation cells that support stigmergy-inspired communication via light. The approach combines LEDs for light-based cues, Hall-effect sensing, and magnet-based presence signaling to enable bidirectional robot-grid interactions and data-rich experimentation. Through hardware design details and a suite of validation experiments (gradient following, path planning, obstacle avoidance, collective transport, and shepherding), the work demonstrates low-cost scalability and reconfigurability for indoor swarm research. Overall, GenGrid lowers barriers to studying macro-level swarm behaviors from micro-level, resource-constrained agents and is compatible with a range of common swarm robots.

Abstract

GenGrid is a novel comprehensive open-source, distributed platform intended for conducting extensive swarm robotic experiments. The modular platform is designed to run swarm robotics experiments that are compatible with different types of mobile robots ranging from Colias, Kilobot, and E puck. The platform offers programmable control over the experimental setup and its parameters and acts as a tool to collect swarm robot data, including localization, sensory feedback, messaging, and interaction. GenGrid is designed as a modular grid of attachable computing nodes that offers bidirectional communication between the robotic agent and grid nodes and within grids. The paper describes the hardware and software architecture design of the GenGrid system. Further, it discusses some common experimental studies covering multi-robot and swarm robotics to showcase the platform's use. GenGrid of 25 homogeneous cells with identical sensing and communication characteristics with a footprint of 37.5 cm X 37.5 cm, exhibits multiple capabilities with minimal resources. The open-source hardware platform is handy for running swarm experiments, including robot hopping based on multiple gradients, collective transport, shepherding, continuous pheromone deposition, and subsequent evaporation. The low-cost, modular, and open-source platform is significant in the swarm robotics research community, which is currently driven by commercial platforms that allow minimal modifications.
Paper Structure (4 sections, 10 figures)

This paper contains 4 sections, 10 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. System design
  3. Experiments and Results
  4. Conclusions

Figures (10)

  • Figure 1: Architecture design of GenGrid module showing (a)block level design with all components of a GenGrid cell, (b)2D design of GenGrid cell, and (c) exploded 3D render of digital GenGrid cell.
  • Figure 2: Screenshot of the developed GenGrid platform.
  • Figure 3: Robot design showing (a) screenshot of the developed swarm robot, and (b) block level drawing of the robot showing all components.
  • Figure 4: (a) Map specifying the intensity of light at the center of individual cells with robot positioned at 70% intensity, (b) image showing the screenshot of the actual GenGrid configured system with robot placed on top, and (c) Light sensor readings from the positioned robot in the configured GenGrid platform.
  • Figure 5: (a) Image showing the probability of robot position in a GenGrid map while performing single hop based on positive light gradient, (b) Image showing the probability of robot position in a GenGrid map while following 2D path based on positive light gradient.
  • ...and 5 more figures