Gondola: a Parametric Robot Infrastructure for Repeatable Mobile Experiments

TL;DR

Gondola is a flexible, wire-based robot infrastructure enabling repeatable 3D mobility for wireless sensor network experiments without complex localization.

Contribution

The paper introduces Gondola, a novel parametric robot system based on pulling wires that overcomes limitations of wheeled robots in WSN testbeds.

Findings

Gondola moves in 3D space without complex localization.

It adapts easily to various WSN deployment scenarios.

Provides repeatable mobility for wireless sensor experiments.

Abstract

When deploying a testbed infrastructure for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), one of the most challenging feature is to provide repeatable mobility. Wheeled robots, usually employed for such tasks, strive to adapt to the wide range of environments where WSNs are deployed, from chaotic office spaces to potato fields in the farmland. For this reson, these robot systems often require expensive customization steps that, for example, adapt their localization and navigation system. To avoid these issues, in this paper we present the design of Gondola, a parametric robot infrastructure based on pulling wires, rather than wheels, that avoids the most common problems of wheeled robot and easily adapts to many WSN's scenarios. Different from wheeled robots, wich movements are constrained on a 2-dimensional plane, Gondola can easily move in 3-dimensional spaces with no need of a complex localization system and an accuracy that is comparable with off-the-shelf wheeled robots.