A Portable, 3D-Printing Enabled Multi-Vehicle Platform for Robotics Research and Education

TL;DR

microMVP is an affordable, portable, open-source multi-vehicle robot platform designed for robotics research and education, emphasizing ease of assembly, customization, and demonstration of multi-robot algorithms.

Contribution

This paper introduces microMVP, a novel 3D-printable, multi-vehicle robot platform that is easy to reproduce, maintain, and supports multi-robot research and educational activities.

Findings

Successfully demonstrated multi-robot path planning algorithms

Platform is fully assembled in under two hours

Supports all common operating systems

Abstract

microMVP is an affordable, portable, and open source micro-scale mobile robot platform designed for robotics research and education. As a complete and unique multi-vehicle platform enabled by 3D printing and the maker culture, microMVP can be easily reproduced and requires little maintenance: a set of six micro vehicles, each measuring $8\times 5\times 6$ cubic centimeters and weighing under $100$ grams, and the accompanying tracking platform can be fully assembled in under two hours, all from readily available components. In this paper, we describe microMVP's hardware and software architecture, and the design thoughts that go into the making of the platform. The capabilities of microMVP APIs are then demonstrated with several single- and multi-robot path and motion planning algorithms. microMVP supports all common operation systems.