Swarming RobotsReal and Simulated

Fredrik Jansson20.11.2015

Swarm Organ Project

Pattern formation

Gap gene expression in Drosophila embryo. [Jaeger 2004]

The Kilobot

• moves by vibration

• infrared communication

• 10 cm, omnidirectional

• designed for swarms

• programming in C

Kilobot programming

Kilobot - ATmega 328

• 2 kB RAM

• 32 kB FLASH ROM

• 8 MHz

• 8 bit RISC

C64 - 6510 CPU

• 64 kB RAM

• 20 kB ROM

• 1 MHz

• 8 bit RISC

Follow the leader

Developing a Kilobot simulator

jic-csb.github.io/kilombo/ arXiv:1511.04285

user code

functions

simulator

user code

kilobothardware

...kilo

bots

physics

envi

ronm

ent

kilolib

kilolib APIkilolib API

bot state

functions

kilobothardware

physics

bot state

user code

kilobothardware

kilolib

kilolib API

bot state

functions

...functions

bot state ...

Real Kilobots Kilobots in simulator

Orbit and Edge FollowingA

B

A

B

C

No noise

With noise

Simulator performance

Lessons I learned• git - version control

• communication

• programming for users

• documentation

• examples

• changes may have consequences for everyone

• good naming

• importance of working on the same code base

Gene regulation and robots - Gradient interpretation4 minimal networks for incoherent feedforward loops

Drosophila-inspired stripes

Interaction with maternal genes Mutual repression between the gap genes

Jorren Bosga, Bachelor’s thesis

Turing PatternsSpots Stripes

Cell mechanicsEpithelium and mesenchyme

Ivica Slavkov / CRG, Barcelona

Starfish

Morphogen diffusion + edge movement Noemí Carranza / CRG, Barcelona

Light-seeking Slime MouldDictyostelium - amoeba

Verônica Grieneisen Ivica Slavkov James Sharpe Noemí Carranza

Tjelvar Olsson Jaap Kaandorp Fredrik Jansson Stan Marée

Roland Dries Johanna Grönqvist Martin Hinsch Matthew Hartley