12:15 pm
KPTC Room 206
"Design and Control of Minimalistic Swarms"
Advances in technology have begun to allow for the production of large groups, or swarms, of robots; however, there exists a large gap between their current capabilities and those of swarms found in nature or envisioned for future robot swarms. These deficiencies are the result of two factors, difficulties in algorithmic control of these swarms, and limitations in hardware capabilities of the individuals. Creating a hardware system for large robotic swarms is an open challenge; cost and manufacturability pressure hardware designs to be simple with minimal capabilities, while algorithm design favors more capable hardware. The robot design must balance these factors to create a simple robot that is, at the same time, capable of performing the desired behaviors. In this talk, I will discuss the many challenges associated with creating a robot swarm at this scale and the implications this has for creating even larger, more capable swarms in the future.