Publications by Stéphane Magnenat

Localization of inexpensive robots with low-bandwidth sensors

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Shiling Wang, Ming Liu

Recent progress in electronics has allowed the construction of affordable mobile robots. This opens many new opportunities, in particular in the context of collective robotics. However, while several algorithms in this field require global localization, th ...

SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG2019

Augmented Robotics for Learners: A Case Study on Optics

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Olguta Robu, Wafa Monia Benkaouar Johal, Amaury Robert Dame

In recent years, robots have been surfing on a trendy wave as standard devices for teaching programming. The tangibility of robotics platforms allows for collaborative and interactive learning. Moreover, with these robot platforms, we also observe the occu ...

IEEE2019

Bringing robotics into formal education using the Thymio open source hardware robot

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Fanny Riedo, Philippe Rétornaz, Manon Aline Briod, Léa Marie Pereyre

Mobile robots are valuable tools for education because of both the enthusiasm they raise and the multidisciplinary nature of robotics technology. Mobile robots give access to a wide range of fields, such as complex mechanics, sensors, wireless transmission ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2017

Improved mobile robot programming performance through real-time program assessment

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Rémy Alain Siegfried

ACM2017

Live Texturing of Augmented Reality Characters from Colored Drawings

Pascal Fua, Stéphane Magnenat, Tien Dat Ngo

Coloring books capture the imagination of children and provide them with one of their earliest opportunities for creative expression. However, given the proliferation and popularity of digital devices, real-world activities like coloring can seem unexcitin ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2015

IniRobot : a pedagogical kit to initiate children to concepts of robotics and computer science

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Fanny Riedo, Morgane Solène Denise Chevalier, Gordana Gerber

We present the IniRobot pedagogical kit, conceived and deployed within French and Swiss primary schools for the initiation to robotics and computer science. It provides a microworld for learning, and takes an enquiry-based educational approach, where kids ...

Roboptics Edition2015

Cooperative navigation in robotic swarms

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Philippe Rétornaz

We study cooperative navigation for robotic swarms in the context of a general event-servicing scenario. In the scenario, one or more events need to be serviced at specific locations by robots with the required skills. We focus on the question of how the s ...

Springer Verlag2013

Seamless Multi-Robot Programming for the People: ASEBA and the Wireless Thymio II Robot

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Fanny Riedo, Florian Christopher Vaussard, Philippe Rétornaz

IEEE2013

Swarmanoid: a novel concept for the study of heterogeneous robotic swarms

Francesco Mondada, Dario Floreano, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Daniel Burnier, Valentin Longchamp, Florian Christopher Vaussard, Philippe Rétornaz, James Roberts, Timothy Stirling

2013

Thymio II, a robot that grows wiser with children

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Fanny Riedo, Morgane Solène Denise Chevalier

Thymio II is a small robot developed for education. It aims at offering a wide public the possibility to understand the basics of robotics and programming. To achieve this, it aims at being appealing to a large age range and serve as a medium for several t ...

IEEE2013

A Programming Workshop using the Robot "Thymio II": The Effect on the Understanding by Children

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Fanny Riedo

Robots are both fascinating objects for the general public and devices whose conception, understanding and pro- gramming involve many fields. This unique combination makes them an ideal tool for introducing science and technology to children. This paper pr ...

IEEE2012

Integration of Online Learning into HTN Planning for Robotic Tasks

Francesco Mondada, Jean-Cédric Chappelier, Stéphane Magnenat

This paper extends hierarchical task network (HTN) planning with lightweight learning, considering that in robotics, actions have a non-zero probability of failing. Our work applies to A*-based HTN planners with lifting. We prove that the planner finds the ...

2012

Autonomous construction with a mobile robot in a resource-limited environment: a demonstration of the integration of perception, planning and action

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Alexey Gribovskiy

This demo presents a miniature mobile robot performing autonomous construction in an environment where resources are limited. After an exploration phase, the robot builds a structure at a designated location according to an order from a human. Since local ...

IOS Press2012

Autonomous construction using scarce resources in unknown environments - Ingredients for an intelligent robotic interaction with the physical world

Francesco Mondada, Roland Philippsen, Stéphane Magnenat

The goal of creating machines that autonomously perform useful work in a safe, robust and intelligent manner continues to motivate robotics research. Achieving this autonomy requires capabilities for understanding the environment, physically interacting wi ...

Springer Verlag2012

Physical interactions in swarm robotics: the hand-bot case study

Francesco Mondada, Hannes Bleuler, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Philippe Rétornaz

This paper presents a case-study on the performance achieved by the mechanical interactions of self-assembling mobile robots. This study is based on the hand-bot robot, designed to operate within heterogeneous swarms of robots. The hand-bot is specialized ...

Springer2012

ASEBA: A Modular Architecture for Event-Based Control of Complex Robots

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Valentin Longchamp, Philippe Rétornaz

We propose ASEA, a modular architecture for event-based control of complex robots. ASEBA runs scripts inside virtual machines on self-contained sensor and actuator nodes. This distributes processing with no loss of versatility and provides several benefits ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2011

Towards an Autonomous Evolution of Non-Biological Physical Organisms

Francesco Mondada, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Roderich Gross, Lorenz Küchler

We propose an experimental study where simplistic organ- isms rise from inanimate matter and evolve solely through physical interactions. These organisms are composed of three types of macroscopic building blocks floating in an agitated medium. The dynamis ...

Springer Verlag2011

Design of Magnetic Switchable Device (MSD) and applications in climbing robot

Francesco Mondada, Hannes Bleuler, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Frédéric Rochat, Patrick Schoeneich

A Magnetic Switchable Device (MSD) is a ferromagnetic circuit using permanent magnets where the flux can circulate between different paths when its configuration is changed. This routes or cancels the flux through specific surfaces, and thus turns on or of ...

World Scientific2010

Affordable SLAM through the Co-Design of Hardware and Methodology

Francesco Mondada, Hannes Bleuler, Paolo Germano, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Valentin Longchamp, Philippe Rétornaz

SLAM is a prominent feature for autonomous robots operating in undefined environments. Applications areas such as consumer robotics appliances would clearly benefit from low-cost and compact SLAM implementations. The SLAM research community has developed s ...

IEEE Press2010

The MarXbot, a Miniature Mobile Robot Opening new Perspectives for the Collective-robotic Research

Francesco Mondada, Hannes Bleuler, Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Daniel Burnier, Valentin Longchamp, Florian Christopher Vaussard, Philippe Rétornaz, Gilles Roulet

Collective and swarm robotics explores scenarios involving many robots running at the same time. A good platform for collective-robotic experiments should provide certain features among others: it should have a large battery life, it should be able to perc ...

IEEE Press2010