Publications by Michael Bonani

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This chapter presents a disaster recovery scenario that has been used throughout the ASCENS project as a reference to coordinate the study of distributed algorithms for robot ensembles. We first introduce the main traits and open problems in the design of behaviors for robot ensembles.We then present the scenario, highlighting its generality as a framework to compare algorithms and methodologies for distributed robotics. Subsequently, we summarize the main results of the research conducted in ASCENS that us

This article illustrates the methods and results of two sets of experiments in which a group of mobile robots, called s-bots, are required to physically connect to each other, that is, to self-assemble, to cope with environmental conditions that prevent th ...

We propose an experimental study where simplistic organ- isms rise from inanimate matter and evolve solely through physical interactions. These organisms are composed of three types of macroscopic building blocks floating in an agitated medium. The dynamis ...

Swarm robotics draws inspiration from decentralized self-organizing biological systems in general and from the collective behavior of social insects in particular. In social insect colonies, many tasks are performed by higher order group or team entities, ...

This paper presents a case-study on the performance achieved by the mechanical interactions of self-assembling mobile robots. This study is based on the hand-bot robot, designed to operate within heterogeneous swarms of robots. The hand-bot is specialized ...

Multi-robot systems have been studied in tasks that require the robots to be physically linked. In such a configuration, a group of robots may navigate a terrain that proves too difficult for a single robot. On the contrary, many collective tasks can be ac ...

In social insect colonies, many tasks are performed by higher-order entities, such as groups and teams whose task solving capacities transcend those of the individual participants. In this paper, we investigate the emergence of such higher-order entities u ...

Mobile robots are said to be capable of self-assembly when they can autonomously form physical connections with each other. Despite the recent proliferation of self-assembling systems, little work has been done on using self-assembly to add functional valu ...

We propose ASEA, a modular architecture for event-based control of complex robots. ASEBA runs scripts inside virtual machines on self-contained sensor and actuator nodes. This distributes processing with no loss of versatility and provides several benefits ...

SLAM is a prominent feature for autonomous robots operating in undefined environments. Applications areas such as consumer robotics appliances would clearly benefit from low-cost and compact SLAM implementations. The SLAM research community has developed s ...

We study cooperative navigation for robotic swarms in the context of a general event-servicing scenario. In the scenario, one or more events need to be serviced at specific locations by robots with the required skills. We focus on the question of how the s ...

We present a study of collective robotics by including a mechatronics point of view. In the field it is usually claimed that collective robots are simple and relatively cheap because they are produced in large quantities. Instead in our study we show that ...

Autonomous construction by mobile robots would be useful in various situations, such as in outer space, in hazardous environments, but also for the building industry. Current works tackle simplified scenarios where environment is flat and resources readily available; moreover robots build simple structures. However, target applications would feature complex 3D environments, remote resources, and would require the construction of multi-layer structures of various types. In this poster, we show our current wo

Mobile robots have the potential to become the ideal tool to teach a broad range of engineering disciplines. Indeed, mobile robots are getting increasingly complex and accessible. They embed elements from diverse ﬁelds such as mechanics, digital electronic ...

Collective and swarm robotics explores scenarios involving many robots running at the same time. A good platform for collective-robotic experiments should provide certain features among others: it should have a large battery life, it should be able to perc ...

Mobile robots are valuable tools for education because of both the enthusiasm they raise and the multidisciplinary nature of robotics technology. Mobile robots give access to a wide range of fields, such as complex mechanics, sensors, wireless transmission ...

We describe a new multi-robot system, named SWARM-BOTS, that exploits physical inter-connections to solve tasks that are impossible for a single robot. This is for instance the case of passing large gaps or high steps in all-terrain conditions. In order to achieve this type of autonomous collective operations, the design of the type of connection, as well as its sensors and actuators, plays a key role. This paper presents the choices made in the SWARM-BOTS project and the know-how collected until now. The r

A swarm-bot is a robotic entity built of several autonomous mobile robots (called s-bots) physically connected together. This form of collective robotics exploits robot interactions both at the behavioral and physical levels. The goal of this paper is to a ...

This paper presents a new robotic concept, called SWARM-BOT, based on a swarm of autonomous mobile robots with self-assembling capabilities. SWARM-BOT takes advantage from collective and distributed approaches to ensure robustness to failures and to hard environment conditions in tasks such as navigation, search and transportation in rough terrain. One SWARM-BOT is composed of a number of simpler robots, called s-bots, physically interconnected. The SWARM-BOT is provided with self-assembling and self-reconf

In this article, the RObject concept is first introduced. This is followed by a survey of applicable energy scavenging technologies. Energy is a key issue for the large scale deployment of robotics in daily life, as recharging the batteries places a consid ...

Michael Bonani

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Adaptation and Awareness in Robot Ensembles: Scenarios and Algorithms

Cooperation through self-assembly in multi-robot

Towards an Autonomous Evolution of Non-Biological Physical Organisms

Teamwork in Self-Organized Robot Colonies

Physical interactions in swarm robotics: the hand-bot case study

Autonomous Self-assembly in a Swarm-bot

Division of Labour in Self-Organised Groups

Performance Benefits of Self-Assembly in a Swarm-Bot

ASEBA: A Modular Architecture for Event-Based Control of Complex Robots

Affordable SLAM through the Co-Design of Hardware and Methodology

Cooperative navigation in robotic swarms

Robotique collective et auto-assemblage : une étude mécatronique

Autonomous Construction by a Mobile Robot in Unknown Environments with Scarce Resources

The e-puck, a Robot Designed for Education in Engineering

The MarXbot, a Miniature Mobile Robot Opening new Perspectives for the Collective-robotic Research

Bringing robotics into formal education using the Thymio open source hardware robot

Physical connections and cooperation in swarm robotics

Superlinear Physical Performances in a SWARM-BOT

SWARM-BOT: From Concept to Implementation

Towards Autonomous Energy-Wise RObjects