Name: e-puck / e-puck2
Brand: EPFL
Price: 1020 USD
Availability: InStock

EPFL / GCtronic (Switzerland) e-puck / e-puck2 (1)

EPFL / GCtronic (Switzerland) e-puck / e-puck2 (2)

$1,020GCtronic shop lists the e-puck2 with battery at 850 CHF (about $1,020 converted) and a set of three at 2,400 CHF (about $2,900), both before VAT and shipping (October 2026 check). Generation Robots in France lists it at €1,040 before VAT with delivery within 3 weeks. Add-ons such as the ground sensors, Pi-puck and omnivision modules cost extra. The original e-puck dates from 2005 per GCtronic; e-puck2 was released in January 2018.

AvailablePython from a laptopPalm-sizedOpen hardwareSwarm classicPython over Wi-Fi

Weeks+Shipping: About 3 weeks (EU reseller), direct from Switzerland unconfirmed. Sold directly by GCtronic in Switzerland (PayPal checkout, shipping quoted separately) and through European resellers such as Generation Robots, which quotes delivery within 3 weeks. No US stockist was found, so US buyers face international shipping and import duties. GCtronic shop ↗

Remote control: A Mac or PC can drive it live over Wi-Fi with the pip-installable unifr_api_epuck Python package, or over Bluetooth/USB with GCtronic's PC tools. Firmware is built with a GCC tool chain and flashed over USB from Mac, Windows or Linux.

GCtronic e-puck2 ↗GCtronic shop ↗e-puck2 wiki ↗Generation Robots ↗Python API (unifr_api_epuck) ↗Wikipedia ↗

Overview

The small open-hardware robot that a generation of university courses and swarm labs used, designed at EPFL by Michael Bonani and Francesco Mondada. The e-puck2 (2018) keeps the same 7 cm body and add-on boards but adds a faster processor, Wi-Fi, a distance sensor and IMU. Its strength is a huge body of course material, papers and simulator support. The catch is price, since a hand-sized robot with microcontroller-class compute costs about $1,000 and ships from Switzerland.

Specifications

Category	Wheeled rovers · Research mobile manipulators & platforms
Released	2005
Country	Switzerland
Availability	Available
Programmability	Open source (hardware + software)
Built-in autonomy	Reactive · Responds to its surroundings without a map, such as avoiding obstacles or following a person
LLM support	Possible via SDK · No LLM features, but a laptop can drive it over Wi-Fi from Python, so an LLM could be connected through custom code.
MuJoCo simulation	None found · Nothing found.
NVIDIA Isaac simulation	None found · Nothing found.
Gazebo simulation	Community model · Old third-party Gazebo 7 / ROS Kinetic simulation of the e-puck2. The best-supported simulator is Webots (official e-puck model and webots_ros2 driver), which is not counted here. SharathRaparthy/Epuck-Robot-Gazebo ↗
Best for	Professionals & labs
Vision sensors	Camera
Actuators	Stepper motors
Audio	Speaker, Microphone
Compute type	Arduino / ESP32 / microcontroller
Remote control	Python from a laptop
Size	70 mm diameter, 45 mm tall, 130 g (e-puck2)
Drive	Two stepper motors with 50:1 gearboxes, differential drive
Compute	STM32F407 (168 MHz Cortex-M4) plus an ESP32 for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, optional Raspberry Pi Zero via the Pi-puck board
Vision	Small color camera (160×120 typical for processing)
Lidar	None
Sensors	8 infrared proximity and light sensors, time-of-flight distance sensor (up to 2 m), 9-axis IMU, 4 microphones, IR remote receiver, speaker, RGB LEDs
Runtime	About 3 hours (1.8 Ah Li-ion)
Speed	About 15 cm/s (e-puck2)
SDK	Open-source C firmware for the STM32, onboard debugger (GDB), Aseba, Webots, MicroPython (per GCtronic), ROS/ROS 2 drivers, Python Wi-Fi API (unifr_api_epuck), Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/USB remote-control protocol