Flying Blimps

Video of a single aerobot (in silver) following a remote controlled blimp (in white). This video is sped up by a factor of ten to make it easier to see what is happening. The following aerobot is detecting an infrared beacon attached to the radio controlled blimp: Clip1 file size 4.4Mb in mpv format.

Overhead video of three aerobots homing on a static beacon. If they cannot see the beacon they will follow the transmission of another aerobot. Clip 2 file size 3.0Mb in mpv format.

Overhead video of four aerobots homing on a static beacon starting in a low signal to noise domain. Two of the aerobots (blue and green) have a slightly longer sensing range due to the variability in the hardware. These two blimps pick up the beacon signal first and start to move in, whilst simultaneously transmitting their own local signal which attracts the other two aerobots. This technique is termed Secondary Swarming and could be very useful when operating with hundreds or thousands of micro / nano robots in the future. Clip 3 file size 1.1Mb in mpv format.

Video clip of five aerobots following a moving beacon. The aerobots are using a secondary swarming technique to help them all stay within range of the beacon. Clip 4 file size 3.7Mb mpg format

Aerobot Blimp

Clip 1 Maintaining set height. Video clip shows the Aerobot maintaining a constant height using the ultrasonic altimeter technology described here.

Clip 2 Flying away and coming back. Video clip shows the Aerobot flying from a point to another point and back again, The points in space being determined by the vision system talking to the Aerobot giving positional data.

Clip 3 Landing by a marker. Video clip shows the Aerobot moving towards a given point to land, again the positional data is given by the vision system talking to the Aerobot.

DiveBot

Watch this animated movie of marine sensing flock distortion here. This movie shows the potential for this robot sensing flock, the animation gives an excellent idea of what would happen in the real world.

SubMar

Original Submar Movie showing the detection, rise and descent of robot. 58MB

Techno version #1  10MB (these were created just for fun)

Techno version #2  10MB

EcoBot I

EcoBot I moving along performing light taxis here.

EcoBot II

EcoBot II moving along performing light taxis here.

Marv

Marv has been adapted from a final year student project. It has six legs, each with two degrees of freedom, plus sensitive antennae. Onboard control is implemented using a 68000 based microcontroller. It is used to study various schemes for gait control.  Watch MARV perform his tricks.

U-Bots

The U-Bots have performed many hours of experiments for different research projects within the IAS lab. Here are just some of the movies of them sorting coloured pucks based on ant research.

2 Colour sort. 3 Colour sort. U-Bot vision system sorting 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5.

SlugBot

The SlugBot performing a full scan with it's infra-red camera vision system. Watch the movie here.

Dwarves

Watch the dwarves performing a flock behaviour here.

SolarBot

The SolarBot performing obstacle avoidance here.