HeRo: An open platform for robotics research and education

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel platform for swarm robotics that is low cost, easy to assemble using off the shelf components and is deeply integrated with the most used robotic framework available today: ROS (Robot Operating System). The robotic platform is completely open, composed by a 3D printed body and open source software. We describe its architecture, present its main features and evaluate its functionalities executing real experiments using a couple of robots. We concluded that the proposed swarm platform is a feasible and usable system for education and research, given its reduced cost, easy of use and small size.