On the other side of the Atlantic, the University of Pisa is working to assemble a swarm of miniature robots that will work in tandem to protect the ocean. Why should this be of interest to our 3D printing company in Seattle? Because these robots are being built with a 3D printer!
These Collective Cognitive Robots, or CoCoRo, are capable of working together as a single unit to accomplish complex tasks in ways that single, larger robots would find difficult. With a swarm of forty 25 cm robots, this project represents the biggest swarm of its kind to ever be built. In the past, constructing such robots was a difficult and costly endeavor but, thanks to 3D printing, these robots can be assembled much more quickly and cheaply. These new manufacturing processes have allowed the CoCoRo project to evolve at an impressive rate, and it is scheduled to start its work in the ocean as soon as September of 2014.
