Swarms Of Cute Little Bots Solve Big Problems
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Sunday, 12 of August , 2007 at 7:16 pm
We’ve seen self-assembling modular robots before, but not enough units in one place to really be called a “swarm.” Swarm Bots, developed in 2005 by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, are perhaps the first operational example of the true potential of large numbers of mildly smart, generally simple, relatively inexpensive little robots.
Each Swarm Bot is about 10 centimeters in diameter. They’ve got tank treads to drive them around, a flexible grabber arm, a rigid grabber arm, and a bunch of different sensors that can measure force, proximity (via IR), torque, acceleration (in 3 axes), humidity, and temperature. They talk to each other with a ring of colored LEDs around the body, and each bot also has a speaker, microphones, and an omnidirectional camera. The whole shebang runs on Linux, and if you’ve got a Quicktime plugin for your browser, you can see a 3D visualization of the design here. Read on for videos of the Swarm Bots in action.
The LED light rings and grabber arms are the heart of the swarm bots. Each bot has fairly simple level of artificial intelligence which allows it to recognize problems and ask for help from other bots in the swarm by blinking their LED light rings. If, for example, a bot needs help climbing a slope, it’ll ask for another bot or two to connect to it with a grabber arm, effectively creating a whole new bot with more traction and horsepower.
The video below contains three examples of swarm bots interacting to complete tasks; the first clip shows a bot trying to climb a small hill and the second shows a group of bots trying not to fall off a table. The last clip (speeded up 10x) shows a large swarm of bots transporting an object. As you watch the video, remember that these bots have to figure out by themselves where the object is, the path it needs to be moved over, and then how to actually move it, when all of these tasks are impossible for a single bot to perform by itself.
[ Swarm Bots ] VIA [ Physorg ]
Comments (3)
Category: Research
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Comment by Denny
Made Friday, 3 of July , 2009 at 3:19 am
Nice machine, whats its name R2D2? Just kidding, i always find these kind of thing interesting!
Comment by outdoor pavilions
Made Monday, 21 of November , 2011 at 2:59 pm
There are some attention-grabbing points in this article however I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There’s some validity but I will take hold an opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we wish more! Added to FeedBurner as well.
Comment by invest liberty reserve
Made Tuesday, 17 of January , 2012 at 2:55 am
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