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, self-

organized 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

Castor Wheel

Metal Chasis

DC Geared Motor

Wheel

PHYSICAL COMPONENTS

10 RPM DC GEARED MOTOR

Motor Driver

TOP VIEW

Left

sensor

(MSB)

Front

Sensor 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, 10-bit

Temperature Range (C) -40 to 85

Operating Voltage Range (V) 2 to 5.5

Pin Count 40

OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE LOGIC

101 Right Obstacle

Turn Left

100

Right Obstacle

Straight Obstacle

Turn Left

011

Straight Obstacle

Turn left

010

Left Obstacle

Turn right

001 No obstacle

Go straight 000

Left obstacle

Right Obstacle

Go straight

110

Left Obstacle

Straight Obstacle

Go left

111

Left,right,front obstacle

STOP

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