Pogobot: an Open-Source, Low-Cost Robot for Swarm Robotics and Programmable Active Matter
It provides an accessible, cost-effective tool for researchers in swarm robotics and active matter, enabling studies on collective behaviors and programmable systems.
The paper introduces Pogobot, an open-source, low-cost robot platform designed for swarm robotics and active matter research, featuring vibration or wheel locomotion, infrared communication, and sensors at about 250 euros per unit, with over 200 units already in use at universities for studying self-organizing systems and computational models.
This paper describes the Pogobot, an open-source platform specifically designed for research at the interface of swarm robotics and active matter. Pogobot features vibration-based or wheel-based locomotion, fast infrared communication, and an array of sensors in a cost-effective package (approx. 250euros/unit). The platform's modular design, comprehensive API, and extensible architecture facilitate the implementation of swarm intelligence algorithms and collective motion. Pogobots offer an accessible alternative to existing platforms while providing advanced capabilities including directional communication between units and fast locomotion, all with a compact form factor. More than 200 Pogobots are already being used on a daily basis in several Universities to study self-organizing systems, programmable active matter, discrete reaction-diffusion-advection systems and computational models of social learning and evolution. This paper details the hardware and software architecture, communication protocols, locomotion mechanisms, and the infrastructure built around the Pogobots.