GTernal: a robot design for the autonomous operation of a multi-robot research testbed
S. Kim, P. Davis, N. Yam, S. Coogan, S. Wilson
International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems, 2024
Abstract
This paper presents GTernal, an open-source robot designed for multi-robot experimentation as well as reducing the overhead labor surrounding multi-robot experiments. The robot's hardware design choices and algorithms that automate the mundane initialization, clean up, and charging routines associated with multi-robot experimentation are discussed. The efficacy of the presented design and algorithms are validated by the continuous execution of 453 experiments over a three day period on the Robotarium testbed. In addition to its automation- oriented design, the local collision avoidance feature of GTernal based on control barrier functions is discussed and demonstrated through a set of experiments.