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07/01/2009
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Robots based on mobile phone vibrators can be produced at a cost of as little as £24 each for use in swarms.
Dr Klaus-Peter Zauner, who teaches students Biorobotics in Southampton University’s School of Electronics and Computer Science says the idea came from five students during the first semester. “The students had this idea of exploiting the vibration motor of mobile phones as the main drive component for the robot,” he explained. “There are no extra chassis components needed. It’s basically just a circuit board. The motors are placed onto the mobile phone circuit boards fully automatically, like any other electronic component.”
The other idea they had is to simplify maintenance by getting the robots to collaborate. A single robot has lots of sensors to monitor itself but according to Zauner, “If the robots are made to be in a swarm, they have to be so cheap, the sensors would be a significant cost factor. Instead of a robot being able to test itself, it can try testing other robots, to collaborate. A simple example is one robot challenging another to walk a straight line and come back. If the robot veers left or right, it can tell the other robot. The robot that was walking off can adjust the relative speed of its two motors and recalibrate.”
Following numerous inquiries from groups wanting to build the robots for research purposes, the team is looking for funding to take the idea forward.
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Author
Tom Shelley
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