Miscellaneous

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Fleets of Drones

Published on Mar 3, 2017

From swarm intelligence to highly-choreographed light shows, we take a look at how a collection of drones can behave in interesting and breathtaking ways.

 

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The coming robot swarms

Published on Apr 13, 2017

 

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Controlling robot swarms with augmented reality

Published on Apr 26, 2017

 

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Human perception of swarm robot motion

Published on May 3, 2017

"Human Perception of Swarm Robot Motion"
by Griffin Dietz, Jane L E, Peter Y Washington, Lawrence H Kim, Sean Follmer

CHI'17: ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Late-Breaking Work

Abstract:
As robots become ubiquitous in our everyday environment, we start seeing them used in groups, rather than individually, to complete tasks. We present a study aimed to understand how different movement patterns impact humans' perceptions of groups of small tabletop robots. To understand this, we focus on the effects of changing the robots' speed, smoothness, and synchronization, on perceived valence, arousal, and dominance. We find that speed had the strongest correlation to these factors. With regard to human emotional response to the robots, we align with and build on prior work dealing with individual robots that correlates speed to valence and smoothness to arousal. In addition, participants noted an increase in positive affect in response to synchronized motion, though synchronization had no significant impact on measured perception. Based on our quantitative and qualitative results, we describe design implications for swarm robot motion.

 

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Quadcopters swarm safely in tight formation

Published on May 15, 2017

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have created a team of free-flying robots that obeys the two rules of the air: don’t collide or undercut each other. They've given them virtual "top hats" to avoid flying underneath and messing up the airflow.

The research will be presented at the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) May 29 – June 3 in Singapore.

 

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Crazyswarm: A large nano-quadcopter swarm

Uploaded on Jun 2, 2017

“Crazyswarm: A Large Nano-Quadcopter Swarm,” by James A. Preiss, Wolfgang Honig, Gaurav S. Sukhatme, and Nora Ayanian from University of Southern California. Presented at 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Singapore.

 

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Thinking and acting swarmish: towards intuitive control of robotic swarms

Published on Aug 16, 2017

 

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Swarm Robotics podcast

Published on Aug 20, 2017

 

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Article "A language to design control algorithms for robot swarms"

by Lenka Pitonakova
September 28, 2017

 

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Robots evenly distribution algorithm in action

Published on Oct 2, 2017

 

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Swarm robotics

Published on Oct 3, 2017

A 4th year BE and 3rd year BEng Tech project at Auckland University of Technology School of Engineering,Computing and Mathematical Sciences. Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department. The robots can dock and re-charge themselves.

 

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What intelligent machines can learn from a school of fish | Radhika Nagpal

Published on Oct 6, 2017

Science fiction visions of the future show us AI built to replicate our way of thinking -- but what if we modeled it instead on the other kinds of intelligence found in nature? Robotics engineer Radhika Nagpal studies the collective intelligence displayed by insects and fish schools, seeking to understand their rules of engagement. In a visionary talk, she presents her work creating artificial collective power and previews a future where swarms of robots work together to build flood barriers, pollinate crops, monitor coral reefs and form constellations of satellites.

 

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Published on Oct 12, 2017

While people often think about swarms as simply being large collections of robots, swarms, in fact, have five defining characteristics: number, agent complexity, collective complexity, heterogeneity, and human-swarm interaction. DARPA's OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program will explore these characteristics as it seeks to develop and demonstrate operationally relevant swarm tactics that could be used by groups of unmanned air and/or ground systems numbering more than 250 robots. These swarm tactics for large teams of unmanned assets would help improve force protection, firepower, precision effects, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities.

 

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Morphogenesis in robot swarms

Published on Dec 19, 2018

Morphogenesis allows millions of cells to self-organize into intricate structures with a wide variety of functional shapes during embryonic development. This process emerges from local interactions of cells under the control of gene circuits that are identical in every cell, robust to intrinsic noise, and adaptable to changing environments. Constructing human technology with these properties presents an important opportunity in swarm robotic applications ranging from construction to exploration. Morphogenesis in nature may use two different approaches: hierarchical, top-down control or spontaneously self-organizing dynamics such as reaction-diffusion Turing patterns. Here, we provide a demonstration of purely self-organizing behaviors to create emergent morphologies in large
swarms of real robots. The robots achieve this collective organization without any self-localization and instead rely entirely on local interactions with neighbors. Results show swarms of 300 robots that self-construct organic and adaptable shapes that are robust to damage. This is a step toward the emergence of functional shape formation
in robot swarms following principles of self-organized morphogenetic engineering.

Read the paper:
Slavkov, I., Zapata D. C. et al., Science Robotics (2018)

Reprinted with permission from Slavkov, I., Zapata D. C. et al., Science Robotics (2018).

"Growing bio-inspired shapes with a 300-robot swarm"

by Sabine Hauert
December 19, 2018

 

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Particle robots

Published on Mar 20, 2019

Researchers from MIT, Columbia University, and elsewhere have developed computationally simple robots that connect in large groups to move around, transport objects, and complete other tasks.

"“Particle robot” works as a cluster of simple units"
Loosely connected disc-shaped “particles” can push and pull one another, moving en masse to transport objects.

by Rob Matheson
March 20, 2019

 

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Make: Live - Swarm bots

Streamed live March 23, 2019

Radio controlled vehicles are a common target for makers, and cars like the Thunder Tumbler provide an affordable, accessible platform. Using Particle's new, mesh-ready hardware, we'll create a SwarmBot network of Tumblers that move in synchronized fashion!

 

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Article "The social animals that are inspiring new behaviours for robot swarms"

by Edmund Hunt
March 27, 2019

 

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Onboard evolution of understandable swarm behaviors

Published on Aug 23, 2019

"Onboard Evolution of Understandable Swarm Behaviors"

by Simon Jones, Alan Winfield, Sabine Hauert, Matthew Studley
July 18, 2019

 

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Eciton robotica: Design and Algorithms for an Adaptive Self-Assembling Soft Robot Collective

Mar 4, 2020

This video accompanies the paper of the same name published at ICRA 2020.

Inspired by the bridges and bivouacs formed by army ants, we designed a hardware system Eciton robotica, composed of soft, flexible robots that climb over and attach to each other to assemble structures. The robots use a simple local rule: they stop and become a “bridge” when stepped on. Robots in hardware know they are stepped on by sensing a vibration pulse. Using this local rule, robots in simulation are able to self-assemble structures that adapt to traffic levels and terrain.

ssr.seas.harvard.edu/ecitonswarm

 

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SwarmRail: a novel overhead robot system for indoor transport and mobile manipulation

Jun 10, 2020

SwarmRail represents a novel solution to overhead manipulation from a mobile unit that drives in an above ground rail-structure. The concept is based on the combination of omnidirectional mobile platform and L-shaped rail profiles that form a through-going central gap. This gap makes possible mounting a robotic manipulator arm overhead at the underside of the mobile platform. Compared to existing solutions, SwarmRail enables continuous overhead manipulation while traversing rail
crossings. It also can be operated in a robot swarm, as it allows for concurrent operation of a group of mobile SwarmRail units inside a single rail network. Experiments on a first functional demonstrator confirm the functional capability of the concept. Potential fields of applications reach from industry over logistics to vertical farming.