Clickybot: A Low-cost Platform for Networked Robotics

This paper presents an effort to create low-cost autonomous multi-robot network where robots can communicate wirelessly with each other. The robots are designed to use various sensors for obstacle avoidance and communication. All programs are written in the same high level language to maintain a cohesive language set across all aspects of each robot. Each robot utilizes a visual sensor, the uCAM-TTL, to aid in cooperative tasks, such as navigation. The mechanical frames of the robots are built from commercially available kits. Another part of the project is to make the robot network easily expandable for use in other projects. This aspect leads to developing modularly built robots. Modularity allows for easy exchanging of core components and sensors. It also allows fir easy upgrades to the robots for future use.