- Hanish Dhanwalkar
- Vighnesh Nayak
- Harsh Kavediya
- Tanmay Ganguli
Swarm robotics is an approach to the coordination of multiple robots as a system which consists of large numbers of mostly simple physical robots. ″In a robot swarm, the collective behavior of the robots results from local interactions between the robots and between the robots and the environment in which they act.″ Cooperative Object Transport: Design a swarm of robots that can cooperate to transport an object from one location to another. The robots should be able to communicate with each other and coordinate their movements to avoid collisions and safely transport the object.
Swarm robotics is an exciting and rapidly developing field that allows us to learn about how robots can work together in a coordinated manner to achieve a common goal. It provides an excellent opportunity to explore the interdisciplinary aspects of robotics. Working on a project in swarm robotics can help you develop a wide range of skills, including programming, algorithm development, hardware design, and testing. Finally, working on this project will be a fun and rewarding experience.
In this project we aim to explore the field of swarm robotics and implement a project where a group of microcontroller bots coordinate to collectively undertake a task of transporting boxes from one place to another, thereby simulating a warehouse model. The time taken for such tasks can be greatly reduced if numerous bots work together, rather than a single bot doing the same task. We plan to use Aruco markers to keep track of the bots and boxes, and obtain their coordinates in the workspace. A camera suspended on top of the workspace will be used to map and visualize it and determine the locations of the various components present there. The next step is task planning, where a specific task of transporting a specific box is assigned to each bot. It is followed by path planning, where optimal non intersecting paths are determined for each bot so as to finish the task as quickly as possible without colliding with each other in space and time frame. We plan to explore algorithms such as A*, Dijkstra, AO* and chose the best possible one for path planning. Then a feedback controller using PID is implemented on each bot so that they move along the predefined paths and achieve their task.
Firstly, a project in swarm robotics can provide hands-on experience in designing, building, and programming robots, as well as in testing and debugging robotic systems. This can be a valuable learning experience, particularly for those interested in pursuing careers in robotics or related fields. A project in swarm robotics can provide an opportunity to contribute to the field of swarm robotics, by developing new algorithms, methods, or applications that can be applied to real-world problems. This can be a rewarding experience, particularly for those interested in research and development.This can provide a rich and diverse learning experience that can help develop skills in robotics, programming, teamwork, and problem-solving, while also contributing to the advancement of the field.