engineering

S-bot mobile robot

S-bot mobile robot is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand S-bot mobile robot rather than just read about it. In short: The s-bot is a small (15 cm) differential wheeled (with additional tracks) mobile robot developed at the LIS (Laboratory of Intelligent Systems) at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland between 2001 and 2004. Targeted to swarm robotics, a field of artificial intelligence, it was developed within the Swarm-bots project, a Future and Emerging Technologies project coordinated by Prof.

Key takeaways

S-bot mobile robot belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect S-bot mobile robot to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of S-bot mobile robot from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The s-bot is a small (15 cm) differential wheeled (with additional tracks) mobile robot developed at the LIS (Laboratory of Intelligent Systems) at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland between 2001 and 2004. Targeted to swarm robotics, a field of artificial intelligence, it was developed within the Swarm-bots project, a Future and Emerging Technologies project coordinated by Prof. Marco Dorigo. Built by a small team of engineers (Francesco Mondada, André Guignard, Michael Bonani and Stéphane Magnenat) of the group of Prof. Dario Floreano and with the help of student projects, it is considered at the time of completion as one of the most complex and featured robots ever for its size. The s-bot was ranked on position 39 in the list of “The 50 Best Robots Ever” (fiction or real) by the Wired magazine in 2006.

Purpose and use of the s-bot This is a research robot, aimed at studying teamwork and inter-robot communication. To do this, the s-bots have several special abilities:

Using their gripper (red in the photos), they can connect. Then they can, for instance, pass over gap and steps where a single robot would have failed. Using their integrated force sensor, they can coordinate to retrieve an object to a certain location without the use of explicit communication. This is the way ants bring preys to the nest. Of course, all other sensors and actuators, also found on other robots, can be used to do teamwork such as food foraging.

Technical details

General 12 cm diameter 15 cm height 660 g 2 LiIon batteries 1 hour autonomy moving

Control 400 MHz custom XScale CPU board, 64 MB of RAM, 32 MB of flash memory 12 distributed PIC microcontroller for low-level handling Custom Linux port running Familiar Wi-Fi

Actuators 2 treels turret rotation rigid gripper elevation rigid gripper 3 axis side arm side arm gripper

Sensors 15 infrared sensors around the turret 4 infrared sensors below the robot position sensors on all degrees of freedom except gripper force and speed sensors on all major degrees of freedom 2 humidity sensors 2 temperature sensors 8 ambient light sensors around the turret 4 accelerometers, which allow three-dimensional orientation 1 640×480 camera sensor. Custom optic based on spherical mirror provides omnidirectional vision 4 microphones 2 axis structure deformation sensors optical barrier in grippers

LEDS 8 × RGB Light-emitting diodes around the turret red Light-emitting diodes in grippers

Special abilities S-bots can connect to other s-bots to create a bigger structure known as the swarm-bot. To do so, they attach together using their rigid gripper and ring. An s-bot has sufficient force to lift another one.

Integrated software The s-bot features a custom Linux port running the Familiar Linux distribution. All sensors and actuators are easily accessible through a simple C API.

References

Notes

External links Swarm-bots project homepage - The project in which the s-bot was developed. Future and Emerging Technologies - The IST program in which the swarm-bots project takes place. Information Society Technologies - The European Union research activity in which the FET program takes place. LIS - The lab where the s-bot was developed. Swarmbots page at LIS - Pictures and video of the s-bot

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with S-bot mobile robot

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what S-bot mobile robot claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to S-bot mobile robot before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about S-bot mobile robot ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of S-bot mobile robot

In research: S-bot mobile robot appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses S-bot mobile robot in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: S-bot mobile robot is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2004 robots, Differential wheeled robots, Hobbyist robots, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for S-bot mobile robot outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study S-bot mobile robot in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what S-bot mobile robot means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain S-bot mobile robot out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is S-bot mobile robot in simple terms?

Why does S-bot mobile robot matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study S-bot mobile robot?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on S-bot mobile robot.