SWARM ROBOTS

A swarm is a group of animals that aggregate and travel in the same direction

Swarm intelligence
Swarm intelligence (SI) is the collective behaviour of decentralized, selforganized systems, natural or artificial. The concept is employed in work on artificial intelligence

Swarm robotics is a new approach coordination of multirobot systems collective behavior emerges from the interactions between the robots and interactions of robots with the environment. This approach emerged on the field of artificial swarm intelligence, as well as the biological studies of insects, ants and other fields in nature, where swarm behaviour occurs.

THE PROJECT

GOAL
Autonomous Terrain Exploration Using Multiple Robots

Control by a Master Robot Slaves reach Master after a Time Interval

Challenges

Obstacles Communication between Master and Slaves

GPS co-ordinates of master have to be updated to slaves

Self Navigation of slaves to reach Master after a time interval

Strategies

IR SENSORS for Obstacle detection IR Beacon Tranciever for Communication IR Beacon Tranciever for Location Identification

Navigation made possible by some intelligent coding

OBSTACLE SENSOR

IR Obstacle Sensor
.

Principle Of Operation

IR LED emits infrared radiation Surface reflects the infrared light. This reflected light is made incident on reverse biased IR sensor. electron-hole pairs are generated, which results in reverse leakage current.

This current can be passed through a resistor so as to get proportional voltage. This voltage can then be given to OPAMP based comparator. The comparator switches between high and low.

IR BEACON TRANCIEVER

Polulu IR Beacon

IR Beacon Transceiver
Device Specifications IR modulation frequency: 56 kHz Detection range: 6 inches to 20 feet Supply voltage: 6-16 V Data voltage: 5 V Number of IR detectors: 4

IR receiver
Specifications Operating Voltage: 2.7 5.5 V Carrier Frequency: 56 kHz Max data rate: 4000 bps

Power Supply 12.6V,2200mAh(2C) Li-Ion Battery Pack

10 RPM DC Geared Motor

PHYSICAL COMPONENTS DC Geared Motor Castor Wheel

Wheel

Metal Chasis

10 RPM DC GEARED MOTOR

Motor Driver

TOP VIEW
Front Sensor

Left sensor (MSB)

Right Sensor (LSB)

Microcontroller-PIC16F877A

Program Memory- Flash Program Memory -14(KB) Data EEPROM -(bytes) 256 Digital Communication Peripherals 1-A/E/USART Capture/Compare/PWM Peripherals 2 CCP Timers 2 x 8-bit, 1 x 16-bit ADC 8 ch, 10bit Temperature Range (C) -40 to 85 Operating Voltage Range (V) 2 to 5.5 Pin Count 40

OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE LOGIC

001 Left Obstacle Turn right 010 Straight Obstacle Turn left No obstacle Go straight 000 Left,right,front obstacle STOP 111 Left Obstacle Straight Obstacle Go left

011 Right Obstacle Straight Obstacle Turn Left

110

Left obstacle Right Obstacle 100 Right Obstacle 101 Go straight Turn Left

Logic for Slaves reaching the Master CONDITIONS

000 North 000 East 000 West 000 South 001 North 001 East 001 West 001 South 010 North 010 East 010 West 010 South like wise Upto 111 North,East,South,West Total

32

Conditions

Unique code assigned to each 32 conditions Slaves automatically adjusts according to 32 conditions Reaches Master Disadvantages Crude Method Absence of an definite algorithm No Time Limit for slaves reaching the master

Programmed in Embedded C using MPLAB(IDE)

MPLAB Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a free, integrated toolset for the development of embedded applications on Microchip's PIC microcontrollers.

Further Improvement

Develop an algorithm for slaves reaching the Master Switch to more accurate Ultrasound Sensors Add Camera for Surveillance

APPLICATIONS

SPACE EXPLORATION
A Robotic rover exploring Mars

SEARCH AND RESCUE

SECURITY SURVEILLANCE

MILITARY

ENTERTAINMENT as toys