Abstract
In this paper we present the Symbricator Robot API, a software framework for heterogeneous robot swarms with the ability to aggregate and build modular robotic organisms. This software framework supports different robot types and at the same time hides the complexity of the multi-processor sensor-rich robots to the user. Furthermore, it enables communication and energy sharing amongst swarming and aggregated robots. Based on the development of the Symbrion and Replicator projects, we line out the developed software framework. For application development, we offer a unified expandable software interface for all robot types in order to write swarm and organism controllers without restrictions to the actual underlying hardware
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
The FREERTOS Project. http://www.freertos.org. Accessed 16 May 2012
Jorgensen, M.W., Ostergaard, E.H., Lund, H.H.: Modular atron: modules for a self-reconfigurable robot. In: Procceedings of the 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 2068–2073. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (2004)
Kernbach, S., Schlachter, F., Humza, R., Liedke, J., Popesku, S., Russo, S., Ranzani, T., Manfredi, L., Stefanini, C., Matthias, R., Schwarzer, C.H., Girault, B., Alschbach, P., Meister, E., Scholz, O.: Heterogeneity for increasing performance and reliability of self-reconfigurable multi-robot organisms. CoRR, abs/1109.2288 (2011)
Kernbach, S., Scholz, O., Harada, K., Popesku, S., Liedke, J., Humza, R., Liu, W., Caparrelli, F., Jemai, J., Havlik, J., Meister, E., Levi, P.: Multi-robot organisms: state of the art. CoRR, abs/1108.5543 (2011)
Levi, P., Kernbach, S. (eds.): Symbiotic Multi-Robot Organisms: Reliability, Adaptability, Evolution. Springer, Berlin (2010)
MOLECUBES—Molecubes For Everyone :http://www.molecubes.org.. Accessed 16 May 2012
Matthias, R., Wörn, H.: Utilizing the full potential of a new flexible platform in modular self-reconfigurable mobile robotics. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, pp. 2712–2717 (2011)
REPLICATOR: Robotic Evolutionary Self-Programming and Self-Assembling Organisms, 7th Framework Programme Project No FP7-ICT-2007.2.1, 2008–2013. European Communities
Salemi, B., Moll, M., min Shen, W.: Superbot: a deployable, multi-functional, and modular self-reconfigurable robotic system. In: Proccedings IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2006
SYMBRION: Symbiotic Evolutionary Robot Organisms, 7th Framework Programme Project No FP7-ICT-2007.8.2, 2008–2013 http://www.symbrion.eu
UCLINUX—Embedded Linux Microcontroller Project. http://www.uclinux.org. Accessed 16 May 2012
Winkler, L., Wörn, H.: Symbricator3D—a distributed simulation environment for modular robots. In: Xie, M. (ed.) Intelligent Robotics and Applications, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 1266–1277 (2009)
Acknowledgments
The “SYMBRION” project is funded by the European Commission within the work programme “Future and Emergent Technologies Proactive” under the grant agreement no. 216342. The “REPLICATOR” project is funded within the work programme “Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics” under the grant agreement no. 216240. Additionally, we want to thank all members of the projects for fruitful discussions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Schlachter, F., Schwarzer, C., Girault, B., Levi, P. (2012). A Modular Software Framework for Heterogeneous Reconfigurable Robots. In: Levi, P., Zweigle, O., Häußermann, K., Eckstein, B. (eds) Autonomous Mobile Systems 2012. Informatik aktuell. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32217-4_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32217-4_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-32216-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-32217-4
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)