I suspect the world would be better if that percentage were even greater.
Cheap ($15) ($14) Robot Swarm developed at Harvard
I initially overcharged my readers by $1, corrected.
Just a cool link to the Kilobot project: an inexpensive platform for exploring cooperative robot swarms. The robots themselves are rather like Bristlebots: they use a pair of vibration motors which bounce the robot on rigid legs, allowing them to turn and move over smooth surfaces. They also employ a rather clever communication technique using infrared leds which are carried underneath. The light bounces off the tabletop and can reach nearby robots, or an overhead master beacon controller can broadcast programs and data to all robots simultaneously.
More information and videos of the Self-organizing Systems Research Group
Comment from Walt Perko
Time 6/10/2011 at 9:46 pm
Hi, this is a kind’a neat project … I wonder what a lay person could learn watching the swarm for an hour or so ??? How would a small child review these?
Where do you buy them ???