If you’re interested in playing games or studying the electronics and programming of real-world robot swarms, the Swarmbuddies units are now at your fingertips. These little customizable robots are engineered to follow your commands even its about dance choreography or you’re interesting to dig more in computer vision.
Any of the Swarmbuddy robots is an accessible platform that can be programmed via PC, controlled over Android or iOS devices, or just let you relax while they will dance on music or react to noises or movement captures with a microphone or a webcam.
In the latest years several other projects were released aiming to bring into the market the best robot kit able to recreate the nature of swarm behaviour exhibited by animals using plastic, metal and a limited quantity of intelligence. Back in 2012, University of Pennsylvania researchers creates a swarm of nano quadrotors able to fly in formation and react as a swarm at a simple stimulus. This year, in 2014, several other projects take shape in the labs of Disney Research Zurich with PIXELBOTS project designed to display colored forms with mobile pixels, or Harvard University with its termite drones engineered to work together to build different structures.
What Swarmbuddies can do for you!
The Swarmbuddies kit is far away to be compared with Lego Mindstorms kits, but even so, it could do more than this in some cases. Even you’re a young child or … an old child, even you’re an artist or a musician, a teacher or a thinker, the swarm robotic kit is a good choice to have several robot dancers to sync with the music or to react at different stimulus, you can become familiar with robots programming and electronics, as well as you can develop computer vision applications.
Technical specifications
All the components from the kit can be assembled to start paying with your robot in around 10 minutes.
- Bluetooth: nRF51822 low energy chip with embedded ARM Cortex M0 microprocessor
- 2 x DC gearmotors
- Battery: 500 mAh 3.7v lithium polymer with built-in USB recharging circuit
- Case: 3D-printed ABS dome/case
- Feedback: RGB LED
- Sensors: 2 x IR LEDs for nighttime tracking
- Wheels: 2 x acrylic wheels
The manufacturer provides you optional components such as an external USB webcam, Bluetooth low energy CSR 4.0 dongle, or a visible light filter.
The Software
The Swarmbuddies are easily controllable using an Android or iOS device, a PC with Ubuntu, very soon a PC with Windows, or autonomously. With an Android or iOS application can be controlled up to three robots per smartphone, while with a PC, Ubuntu and python code you can program and control all the robots.
