Kilobots

Sheffield Robotics is home to 900 kilobots - one of the largest robot swarms in the world.  Kilobots are small, simple, mobile robots, and can be used in modelling large-scale distributed decision making and group dynamics. Each kilobot includes a 3.7V battery, power jumper, vibration motors, RGN LEDs, ambient light sensor, serial output header, programming socket and charging tab along with IR transmitters and receivers.  

The kilobots can be operated autonomously, or controlled by an overhead IR feedback. Movement is by vibration and so the robots most be operated on a flat surface. A purpose-built arena is available in the Pam Liversidge Building, with an overhead sensing/control gantry.

The kilobot controller is programmed using AVRDUDE (an open source utility program) which can be installed under Windows, Mac or Linux. The kilobots are programmed using an environment consisting of KiloGUI, the Kilobot Library, and the Editor and Compiler, using a C-like language (AVR C).

More information at: https://www.kilobotics.com/