Mobsya is a spin-off of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) aiming at performing robotics research and promote it to the general public. Its main activity consist in developing and producing miniature mobile robots for research and for education, as well as organizing public events where robotics is introduced to the general public.

Expertise. The expertise of this non-profit organization comes from the long tradition of mobile robot design developed at EPFL within the Laboratoire de Systme Robotiques (LSRO) by Francesco Mondada. Himself and a group of robotics researchers and event organizers form the steering committee of Mobsya ˙ The staff of Mobsya is variable depending on the projects, is partially based on volunteering and is centered around one core person, Michael Bonani. Dr Bonani has co-developed several well known robotics systems such as (i) the e-puck educational robot, used by more than 50 universities worldwide, (ii) the s-bot robot, developed within the swarm-bot european project, considered as a success-story by the European commission, (iii) the Foot-bot / marXbot and the Hand-bot, both developed within the Swarmanoid European project, also considered as a success-story by the European commission. Mobsya has ongoing collaborations on educational robotic with the Swiss National Center of Competences in Research in robotics, a national project coordinating the robotics research in Switzerland. Role of Mobsya. Mobsya has strong competences in the mechatronic design of miniature mobile robots.

Role in ASCENS. In ASCENS, Mobsya will support and adapt the mobile robots used in the swarm robotics case study (WP 7). In particular Mobsya will design and manufacture a set of new robotics modules fitting the needs of the robotics application. These modules will be mounted on existing platforms owned by IRIDIA and EPFL. Furthermore, Mobsya will contribute to the WP 8 activities in assembling a catalogue of challenges, solutions, and best practices. Finally, Mobsya will contribute with robotics development tools to WP 6.

Key members

• Michael Bonani