Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Open Design for ~$800 Swarm Robots
Slashdot | Open Design for ~$800 Swarm Robots: "Tuesday July 05, @10:37PM
'There are lots of multi-robot designs out there. Most are either research platforms well over $2K (often $10K or more), or are hobbyist bots under $400 with tiny brains and few sensors. But George Mason University's new FlockBots wiki is interesting. They're trying to pack as much functionality as possible into a roughly $800, 7' mobile swarmbot, and publish the design and software as a free and open spec. So far their design includes a wireless 200MHz Gumstix linux computer, a camera, range and bump sensors, wheel encoders, a can gripper, and lots more. It's a great-looking design and I think the cost could drop to $500 with vendors doing consolidation.'"
'There are lots of multi-robot designs out there. Most are either research platforms well over $2K (often $10K or more), or are hobbyist bots under $400 with tiny brains and few sensors. But George Mason University's new FlockBots wiki is interesting. They're trying to pack as much functionality as possible into a roughly $800, 7' mobile swarmbot, and publish the design and software as a free and open spec. So far their design includes a wireless 200MHz Gumstix linux computer, a camera, range and bump sensors, wheel encoders, a can gripper, and lots more. It's a great-looking design and I think the cost could drop to $500 with vendors doing consolidation.'"