Controlling a swarm of robots by drawing on your iPad
Wouldn't it be cool if you drew something on your iPad and then a swarm of robots diligently copied that? Well here you go.
Keisuke Uto built the hardware and software for an idea contest at his company in Japan. He says the most difficult part was to get the camera to recognize the bar codes on all the robots accurately. And to build everything within a tight budget.
Also he says that he didn't have the time to build an anticollision system, but actually it looks cuter when the robots bump into each other trying to get to the right configuration.
Here's how he made the system (although it's in Japanese). (The instructions below are in English now!) Could be used as a great attraction at events. Thank you Uto-san!
Thank you for sending me the link to the new English version! I've switched it to English in the post.
Posted by: Norri | November 30, 2011 at 09:43 PM
I uploaded English version of a presentation of how to make them to slideshare.
http://www.slideshare.net/utotch/how-to-make-multirobots-formation-control-system
Enjoy!
Posted by: Keisuke Uto | November 30, 2011 at 04:08 PM