Re: Swarm?

In lugnet.robotics, Andrew G. Meyer wrote:

> Would it be possible to create a Lego swarm?

   If you mean a collective group of identical robots interacting, sure. As a
simple example, build a robot that drives towards the brightest light source,
and then when the ambient brightness is above some threshold have it change
behavior and start sending out IR messages. A state machine architecture should
work well for this sort of thing, but that can be implemented fairly easily in
many different languages

> I'm thinking this would make a good introductory demo
> for a robotics class I'm teaching.

   What age & resources? One idea is to provide the class with LDraw plans for
the robots, so the class (a) gets experience with LEGO construction, and (b)
creates all the robots for you (not to mention they'll have a lot greater
interest in the final result if they are part of it - group project trumps
passive demo any day).
   For later, line-following robots that can draw lines (white melamine 4x8
sheets are pretty cheap, as are dry-erase markers). Robotic ants in the
classroom.

-- 
Brian Davis