The Pi-puck extension board: a Raspberry Pi interface for the e-puck robot platform

This paper presents the Pi-puck extension board - an interface between the e-puck robot platform and a Raspberry Pi single-board computer that enhances the processing power, memory capacity, and networking capabilities of the robot at a low cost. It allows high-level control algorithms, wireless communication, and computationally expensive operations such as real-time image processing to be handled by a Raspberry Pi, while the e-puck's microcontroller deals with low-level motor control and sensor interfacing. Although two similar extension boards for the e-puck robot platform already exist, they are now out-dated and expensive in comparison. Our open-source hardware design and supporting software infrastructure offer an inexpensive upgrade to the e-puck robot, transforming it into the Pi-puck – a modern and flexible new platform for mobile robotics research.