After more than 15 years and multiple generations, the Swiss-designed e-puck is still used worldwide by more than 4’000 universities and research centers. This modular mobile robot is a key tool to teach mobile robotics.
The e-puck is an educational robot that helps generations of students learn about embedded systems and robotics. First developed at EPFL in 2004 by Francesco Mondada and Michael Bonani, a new version was released in 2018, produced by GCtronic in Ticino.
The e-puck contains 15 sensors including 4 microphones, a color camera, 8 infrared proximity sensors, a time-of-flight sensor, an inertial measurement unit, in addition to speakers, 8 red LEDs, 4 RGB LEDs, and many more features to explore. Its simple structure with 3 contact points and two wheels makes it mobile, leading to a wide range of possible uses. All of the necessary resources are available on the GCtronic wiki for e-puck2!
Although the e-puck is mainly used for educational purposes, its completeness and modularity led it to be part of research in various other fields including collective and evolutionary robotics, but also in artistic performances!
Related publications:
Formalization, Implementation, and Modeling of Institutional Controllers for Distributed Robotic Systems
J. N. Pereira; P. Silva; P. U. Lima; A. Martinoli
Artificial Life. 2014. Vol. 20, num. 1, p. 127-141. DOI : 10.1162/ARTL_a_00100. An Adaptive Field Estimation Algorithm for Sensor Networks in Dynamic Environments
A. Prorok; W. C. Evans; A. Martinoli
2011. Workshop on Robotics for Environmental Monitoring at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Francisco, Real-Time Audio-Visual Calls Detection System for a Chicken Robot
A. Gribovskiy; F. Mondada
2009. 14th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR 2009), Munich, Germany, July 22-26, 2009. p. 1-6. The e-puck, a Robot Designed for Education in Engineering
F. Mondada; M. Bonani; X. Raemy; J. Pugh; C. Cianci et al.
2009. 9th Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions, Castelo Branco, Portugal, May 7, 2009. p. 59-65. Scripting the swarm: event-based control of microcontroller-based robots.
S. Magnenat; P. Rétornaz; B. Noris; F. Mondada
2008. International Conference on Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots (SIMPAR) 2008, Venice, November 3-7, 2008. Aseba-Challenge: An Open-Source Multiplayer Introduction to Mobile Robots Programming
S. Magnenat; B. Noris; F. Mondada
2008. Second International Conference on Fun and Games, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, October 20-21, 2008. p. 65-74. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-540-88322-7. Communication in a Swarm of Miniature Robots: The e-Puck as an Educational Tool for Swarm Robotics
C. M. Cianci; X. Raemy; J. Pugh; A. Martinoli
2007. Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB-2006), Swarm Robotics Workshop, Rome, Italy, October, 2006. p. 103-115. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-540-71541-2_7.
