Cell phone tech for swarm robots

The tiny motors normally used to vibrate cell phones can provide researchers with a significantly more affordable option for building robots. 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. Using those motors, the group designed a new type of robot platform that brought their material cost down to about $48 (24 pounds) per robot, according to a university announcement Wednesday. Research into swarm robotics focuses on coordinating large numbers of identical robots, often small and compact, to collectively work together. The Southampton team's 25 swarm robots are capable of performing autonomously for up to two hours at a time before needing to be recharged or running out of code capacity.