he concept of swarm robots is not new, but this innovation has the potential to make them cheap and easy to mass produce. The web was abuzz today with this announcement:

"A team of students led by Alexis Johnson at the University of Southampton's electronics and computer science school realized the tiny motors intended for cell phone vibration are already designed and manufactured to be attached to circuit boards making them ideally suited for use in swarm robots."

Furthermore:

"The new, inexpensive platform might also force robotics researchers to focus more on swarm robotics software development. Some students have already been addressing how software might effectively control thousands of robots at once by looking at the way "bacteria exchange code for drug resistance," Zauner said.""

The advantage of swarm robots is that they operate as a group towards a common goal- for example, to enter a building and check for hazardous conditions in a dispersed manner. They would communicate with each other to coordinate their mission, and if a few of them were disabled, the mission can still proceed. This approach has gained in favor since it is much more efficient and less risk than relying on one or two more complex and expensive bots to complete the job. Inspiration for swarm robots comes from insects- the behavior of bees, as an example.

This potentially game-changing innovation is to be able to mass produce them in an affordable manner with existing technology, such as the cell phone vibration motors. Accessibility often leads to unexpected and novel applications of technology. These bots will be demonstrated at the Artificial Life XI conference in the UK Aug. 5-8. http://www.alifexi.org/