New Applications for MEMS Modular Robots Using Wireless Communications

Modular robots need networking for coordination, and it is particularly true for MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) microrobots. A promising communication technology is nanowireless networking which could be integrated directly into MEMS microrobots-in our case, the catoms of the Claytronics project. We have designed Vouivre, a wireless simulator integrated in Dynamic Physical Rendering Simulator (DPRSim), a modular robot simulator. Using Vouivre and DPRSim, we have developed new applications for MEMS modular robots. This paper describes Vouivre and presents the new applications that we have implemented inside DPRSim. This altogether shows the interest of using wireless communications in modular robots.