Swarm robotics deals with emergent behavior of a collection of robots. These robots must be cheap and small in order to make it feasible to have a swarm out of them. In this work we present a prototype for one of such robots with emphasis on communication and processing capabilities. The result is a flexible, reconfigurable, dual-processor robot that could be used in physical modeling of robot swarms. The built prototype shows that further implementations can be easily downsized and inexpensive.
Inkjet printing is a promising and challenging technique that could potentially revolutionize large area and organic electronics fabrication. Inkjet systems are designed to construct devices and circuits drop by drop, which would lead to a new paradigm in electronics fabrication. However, inkjet technology for Printed Electronics is still under development and several challenges remain. While there is significant progress being made in the development of electronic devices, such as transistors or sensors, there is a lack of work on circuit and system level design. Designing devices and circuits implies a wide knowledge of process aspects, requiring a complex interaction among concepts, tools and processes coming from different science and engineering disciplines. An explicit methodology is needed to separate design from fabrication in a similar way as in silicon design, to design devices and systems without a deep knowledge of process and materials; thus making it possible to open up inkjet technology to a larger community and undergo more rapid design implementations. In this paper we present the main aspects of such a methodology and we discuss the key topics on inkjet technology that allow us to propose these new specific steps.
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