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COTS Scout: Team Building Robot
The COTS Scout (Commodity-Off-The-Shelf) robot is learning to play well with others - and to work as part of a search and rescue team.
(From Univ. of Minn. Center for Distributed Robotics)
Small remotely controlled robots can be very useful for investigating territory where humans cannot go, or in groups, they can look over more territory than just one person. The COTS Scout robot has these specs:
- Length: 135 mm
- Diameter: 45 mm (main body)
- Weight: 190 g
- Top Speed: 57 mm wheel 0.39 m/s, 64 mm wheel 0.42 m/s, 76 mm wheel 0.50 m/s
- Sensors: Camera (B/W), three infrared range finders, two light sensors and a pyroelectric sensor (for sensing body heat
- Control: two-way remote-control system that supports frequency hopping and signal encryption
Software developed by the team would provide for collaborative sensing, distributed exploration and mapping, and independent coordination amongst each other without human intervention.
SF fans may recall that this problem is explored in Neal Stephenson's 1995 novel The Diamond Age. Swarms of tiny robots form a dog pod grid, to defend suburban enclaves from attacks by other tiny robots.
From Turning Robots into a Well-Oiled Machine via Eurekalert.org.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 4/12/2004)
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Index of related articles:
What is encryption?
DES - The Data Encryption Standard
AES - The Advanced Encryption Standard
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