We present the Kilogrid, an open-source virtualization environment and data logging manager for the Kilobot robot, Kilobot for short. The Kilogrid has been designed to extend the sensory-motor abilities of the Kilobot, to simplify the task of collecting data during experiments, and to provide researchers with a tool to fine-control the experimental setup and its parameters. Based on the design of the Kilobot and compatible with existing hardware, the Kilogrid is a modular system composed of a grid of computing nodes, or modules that provides a bidirectional communication channel between the Kilobots and a remote workstation. In this paper, we describe the hardware and software architecture of the Kilogrid system as well as its functioning to accompany its release as a new open hardware tool for the swarm robotics community. We demonstrate the capabilities of the Kilogrid using a 200-module Kilogrid, swarms of up to 100 Kilobots, and four different case studies: exploration and obstacle avoidance, site selection based on multiple gradients, plant watering, and pheromone-based foraging. Through this set of case studies, we show how the Kilogrid allows the experimenter to virtualize sensors and actuators not available to the Kilobot and to automatize the collection of data essential for the analysis of the experiments.

中文翻译：

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Kilogrid：Kilobot机器人的新颖实验环境

我们介绍了Kilogrid，它是Kilobot机器人（简称Kilobot）的开源虚拟化环境和数据记录管理器。Kilogrid的设计旨在扩展Kilobot的感觉运动能力，简化实验期间收集数据的任务，并为研究人员提供精细控制实验设置及其参数的工具。根据Kilobot的设计并与现有硬件兼容，Kilogrid是一个由计算节点或模块组成的模块化系统，可在Kilobots和远程工作站之间提供双向通信通道。在本文中，我们描述了Kilogrid系统的硬件和软件体系结构，以及其作为群体机器人技术社区的新的开放式硬件工具而发布的功能。我们使用200个模块的Kilogrid，多达100个Kilobots的群集以及四个不同的案例研究证明了Kilogrid的功能：探索和避障，基于多个梯度的站点选择，植物浇水和基于信息素的觅食。通过这套案例研究，我们将展示Kilogrid如何使实验人员虚拟化Kilobot无法使用的传感器和执行器，以及如何自动收集分析实验所需的数据。