from IEEE Spectrum
[IROS 2012] AR Drone Helps Swarm of Self-Assembling Robots to Overcome Obstacles
POSTED BY: EVAN ACKERMAN / TUE, OCTOBER 23, 2012
We’re used to thinking of robot swarms as consisting of lots and lots of similar robots working together. What we’re starting to see now, though, are swarms of heterogeneous robots, where you get different robots combining their powers to make each other more efficient and more capable. One of the first projects to really make this work was Swarmanoid, with teams of footbots and handbots and eyebots, and researchers presented a similar idea at IROS earlier this month, using an AR Drone to help a swarm of self-assembling ground robots to climb over a hill. . . . Read Complete Report
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from IEEE Spectrum
[IROS 2012] Robotic Airplane, Boat, and Submarine Team Up to Monitor Coral Reefs
POSTED BY: EVAN ACKERMAN / TUE, OCTOBER 09, 2012
Designing a robot that can do everything is hard. Robots work best when they’re given one specific task to perform and have been constructed with that task in mind, so if you’re trying to, say, monitor coral reefs from the air, the surface of the ocean, and under water all at once, you can either drive yourself nuts trying to come up with some sort of autonomous submersible seaplane, or you can just teach a robotic airplane, robotic boat, and robotic submarine to all work together. . . . Read Complete Report
