Reference material
Where to go after the workshop: the documentation, the source, the papers behind each part of the testbed, and the team’s public notes.
Docs and source
Documentation
Read the Docs
The dotbot CLI, the controller, the simulator and the Python API you script against.
Why it works the way it does
Papers
ICRA 2024 workshop, demo
DotBot, a cm-Scale, Easy-to-Use Micro-Robot for Swarm Research
The robot itself and the goals behind it: small, cheap, easy to use at swarm scale.
IEEE RA-L 2024
Lighthouse Localization of Miniature Wireless Robots
How a robot knows where it is, with millimetre accuracy. DOI
IEEE RA-L 2025
Automatic Lighthouse Calibration Using Conics for Indoor Robot Localization
Calibrating a base station from circles driven by a robot, with no markers. DOI
Ad Hoc Networks 2026, journal pre-proof
Mari: Responsive Wireless Communication for Low-Power Large-Scale Robot Swarms
How the robots talk: up to 102 robots per gateway, handovers between gateways.
EWSN 2025, demo
The short version of Mari, with a 57-node live setup.
DCOSS-IoT 2026
SwarmIT: Turn Your Collection of Robots into a Robust and Programmable Swarm Testbed
How your code gets onto every robot, and why a crash does not lose the robot.
IEEE INFOCOM WKSHPS 2024
Qrkey: Simply and Securely Controlling Swarm Robots
Scan a QR code, control the robots securely, with no app to install. DOI
ICRA 2025
CapBot: Enabling Battery-Free Swarm Robotics
A sibling project: supercapacitor-powered robots that share charge. DOI
Seeing it run
Videos
YouTube
Mari is a new link layer for connecting robot swarms! (mobility tests)
Mobility tests of the Mari link layer.
YouTube
The 1,000 DotBots Testbed: First Large-Scale Deployment
The 725-robot deployment in Limerick, January 2026.
Public, no login needed
Confluence
The robot on your desk
Hardware
Schematic
DotBot v3 schematic (board 1.3a, PDF)
The main board of the robot used in this workshop: microcontroller, motor drivers, lighthouse receiver, power.
Who we are
The team
Team
The Inria Paris team behind the DotBots: low-power wireless, IoT security, swarm robotics.