[tech] MIT's ant farm

John West McKenna john at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
Mon Apr 3 16:55:04 WST 2000


Oh wow.  Here's a robotics project that's worthy of imitation (but WAY
beyond my abilities).  It's a colony of extremely small robots.

35mm*35mm*30mm, 35g.  4 IR sensors, 4 visible light sensors, 2 bump
sensors, 5 'food' sensors (whatever they are), 1 tilt sensor, 2 mandible
position sensors, an IR beacon emitter, an IR 'tag' emitter, and 3 LEDs.

"Cost: $300 in parts and who knows how many hundreds of thousands in
labor."

They made six in two days.  That's pretty impressive.  The joys of unpaid
student labour ("do it or you fail").

http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/ants/




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