Developing a mobile platform which can be useful for sensor network scientists is a challenging task. In this work, we propose a low-cost, highly customizable robotic mobile platform in order to test mobile sensor network algorithms within lab environments. Using 3D printing technology and user friendly electronics, we provide a useful tool for mobile networking community. This way, the community will have the opportunity to test their algorithms before the deployment in real sensor nodes. A brief market study about the mobile platforms is given in the paper which reveals that current platforms are either more expensive or simply do not meet the requirements for our target scenario.Currently, many research groups are actively conducting research on the algorithms that distribute the tasks and govern the behavior of a group of mobile sensor nodes. However, it is difficult to transfer these simulation based algorithms into real systems which can resemble the environmental conditions real nodes will face.
Fortunately, 3D printing technology is gathering an increasing amount of attention in research labs where customized hardware and cheap prototypes are needed. Robotics have already benefited from 3D printing technology in a wide variety of projects. However, the problem of creating a mobile robotic platform using this technology has not been address yet. One of the long-term aims is to show that 3D printing technology is a feasible solution in order to create groups of robots that can be useful for important topics such as the mobile sensor network field.
The following conference paper was published during the project: