Swarm Robot Projects

There are many open source robot develop projects which can help you get up and  going very quickly. Here is an overview:

Formica Swarm

Jasmine

Why would you want to build a 100-strong swarm of mini robots? Well, aside from having them as your minions, you might be able to learn about “artificial self-organization,” and “control in large robotic groups,” which should come in useful during the inevitable robot insurrection. The swarm robot project, undertaken by the Universities of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe in Germany, aims to produce mini drones that can communicate with one another to avoid collisions, while keeping to a volume of less than three centimeters cubed. Built using open source software and hardware (full list of components is available under the GPL), the latest prototype, titled Jasmine III, achieves those goals while also being able to run “perpetually” thanks to a wireless charging platform. You can see it in close-up after the break, or hit the read link for all the geeky details

iSwarm

• TV broadcast (German): Quarks & Co - Das Geheimnis des Schwarms www.quarks.de (10.04.2007).

• TV broadcast (German): Nano - Roboter wie Bienen www.3sat.de (11/2006).

• TV broadcast (German): "Newton" tv.orf.at (11/2006).

• Museum installation of a robots swarm (20 Jasmine robots) in the museum "Haus der Wissenschaften" (11/2006).

• Article (German): "Die Stammtische der Roboterschwärme" FAZ.net (28.02.2007).

• Article (German): "Beweglich wie ein Bienenvolk" www.handelsblatt.com (19.02.2007)

• Article (German): "Die Intelligenz eines Bienenvolks als Vorbild für Roboter" on www.3sat.de (17.11.2006).

• Article (German): "Bienen als Vorbild für Miniatur-Roboter" on www.br-online.de (16.11.2006).

• Article (German): "Der Bienentanz des Hungers" in the nationwide Austrian newspaper "Der Standard" (21.07.2006)