the Family of animals-robots from German developer Festo robotics expands. The project's Bionic Learning Network company presents two new kinds of robots: a swarm of ants that can interact with each other, and butterflies, which are characterized by all the ease and grace of these insects. Ants-the robots are called BionicANTS. When creating Festo has focused not only on their appearance and manner of transportation, and behavioral features.

Read more...

the Family of animals-robots from German developer Festo robotics expands. The project's Bionic Learning Network company presents two new kinds of robots: a swarm of ants that can interact with each other, and butterflies, which are characterized by all the ease and grace of these insects. Ants-the robots are called BionicANTS. When creating Festo has focused not only on their appearance and manner of transportation, and behavioral features.

On assurances of developers, BionicANT are distributed between a detailed rules. All his actions and movements of the ants coordinate with each other. Each 13,5 cm ant has on its "belly" of the radio, with which and accurate coordination.

3D stereo camera in the head of an ant allows him to see, and bottom-mounted infrared optical sensor tracks the movement of a robot. Meanwhile, two on-Board Li-Po provide up to 40 minutes of wireless operation ants. Recharged they are in the dock with their antennae.

as for the butterflies-robots, they are called eMotionButterflies. The weight of each butterfly is only 32 grams, but this includes two of the servomotor, a couple of small batteries (Li-Po) and made with a laser housing. On a single charge of a butterfly can flutter about 4 minutes, recharge time to 15 minutes. However, canoniac launcher looks very impressive.

actually eMotionButterflies is not just butterflies, but a whole system. It also consists of ten high-speed infrared cameras, which are installed in the room where the butterflies fly. They monitor installed on the robots infrared markers, transmitting data in real time to the Central computer; this occurs coordination of butterflies in space, and, even with 50-inch wingspan, they will not collide.