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Self-Assembling Robots Using Flying Drones
mikejuk writes with an excerpt from I Programmer on a neat swarm of robots that use flying drones to build a map of their environment: "How can a swarm of robots get a global picture of its environment? Easy it simply sends up a drone. We are used to thinking of drones as being used for surveillance by humans operating on the ground, but what is good for humans is good for robots too. The drone can view the overall terrain and run simulations of what configurations of robots could best traverse the slopes. Once it has worked out how to assemble the robots into a single machine the drone has to communicate the plan to the swarm using a protocol based on the colored lights they all have. The ground robots adopt a random color and the drone selects the one it wants to communicate with by displaying the same color. They then repeat the process until only one robot has been selected i.e the drone follows the color changes of the selected robot. Of course if you don't like the idea of human drones flying over your head you may not be happy about robots getting in on the act as well..."
Original paper
It sounds like Arthur C Clarke's work ;-)
Octo-spiders anyone?
Eventually Coordinated Robots Receiving Instructions from Outside Observer Robot just doesn't have the same flair I guess.
something about our colourful robot overlords.
So this is how it all begins... Although I did get a little chuckle when the first robot attempting the hill climb took a tumble, this is amazing and I can't wait to see this technology applied to the real world. The future really does seem to be an interesting place...
that's a great use of tech, get it to push a big load of junk food to us on the couch. =)
Be seeing you...
...ah, never mind.
Sounds like a plot for a B grade sci-fi staring Val Kilmer. What was it, a robot dog with a propeller head. Lets not forget the oxygen generating meth bugs. Ah the possibilities.
Oppose all use of drones, because drones are bad, like nukes are bad.
Let's not have nuclear drones either!
What drones are manned? Are they not ALL robotic? I thought removing human limitations is what made them useful.
This could revolutionize Ikea!
Have gnu, will travel.
OMG! that one robot just porked the other one right there on camera!!!!
The grey goo is here! Run for your lives!
I said - don't look Ethel!..., but it was too late..., she'd already looked.
welcome our new refreshment fetching overlords
or they could have used wifi. Just saying. goes further than the camera can see the light of the led too. and behind walls. stuff.
This is to determine which one is positioned where.
Wifi doesn't help with that. Even GPS doesn't help here because we're talking about very small relative distances. But the challenge and commands might well happen over wifi, bluetooth, or as is popular in these kinds of things, point to multipoint with xbee modules.
This is basically that book, using lights instead of scent detection. I think the scent angle has more promise, doesn't need LOS, but then again you're at the mercy of air currents. Oh, and we're all doomed, m'kay?
It's a fun read, btw. While the characters are formulaic, Suarez is one of those rare authors that doesn't talk down to his audience when it comes to science.
... and I mean soon!
....Hey.... somebody had to say it.....again
Funnily enough a solution occurs to me as well. I think we use it in the wetware realm. It is called 'naming'.