TinyTeRP: A Tiny Terrestrial Robotic Platform with modular sensing

The TinyTeRP is a small, low-cost, modular robotics platform used to study robot sensing and control in large numbers of miniature robots. A fully assembled TinyTeRP costs approximately $50, is 1.7 × 1.8 × 2 cm³, and can move at speeds up to 50 cm/s. The robot is designed around a wheeled platform onto which different circuit boards can be stacked providing hardware modularity. The base module integrates a microcontroller with an 802.15.4 radio used for both sensing and communication between robots. An inertial sensing module used to improve single robot control is provided as an example of an additional sensing board. A simple ‘rendezvous’ algorithm using received signal strength indicator (RSSI) data from the radio illustrates a distributed control algorithm with the TinyTeRP.