Communications of the ACM
Robotic Swarm Swims Like a School of Fish
Fish-inspired robots like this one can synchronize their movements without any outside control.
Credit: Self-organizing Systems Research Group
Fish-inspired robots designed by researchers at the Harvard University John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) can synchronize their movements like an actual school of fish, without outside control.
The Blueswarm robotic swarm uses visual coordination based on blue LED lights, with each robot (Bluebot) featuring two cameras and three LEDs; the cameras detect the LEDs of neighboring Bluebots and algorithmically determine their distance, direction, and heading.
SEAS Radhika Nagpal said, "Insights from this research will help us develop future miniature underwater swarms that can perform environmental monitoring and search in visually-rich but fragile environments like coral reefs. This research also paves a way to better understand fish schools, by synthetically recreating their behavior."
From Harvard University John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
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