Swarm-bots demonstration videos

Passing a step

A swarm-bot in chain configuration displayed the ability to pass obstacles of the same height of a single s-bot robot:

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Self-assembling and object transportation

S-bots are capable of autonomous self-assembly by combining vision for long-range information, proximity sensors for local adjustments, and sensors in the gripper for secure grasping. The control strategies that allow a swarm of connected s-bots to move in a coordinated fashion were evolved in physics-based simulation and successfully used with the real robots. Those strategies are useful for coordinated transportation of an heavy object toward a goal, exploiting a combination of vision and lateral force sensors on the robot body.

(click on image to get the video)

Pulling a child

Most of the s-bot capabilities were exploited in an experiment where twenty s-bots self-assemble into four swarm-bots to pull a child on the floor: The experiment was carried out in semi-autonomous mode. The user specifies the number of swarm-bots, the distribution of the s-bots in the swarm-bots, the global localization of the child and the global actions timing. The s-bots perform in autonomous mode the precise localization of the grasping location on the child, the approach and the self-assembling process.

(click on image to get the video)