In the Swarmathon competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, students were asked to develop computer code for the small robots, programming them to look for "resources" in the form of AprilTag cubes, similar to barcodes. Teams developed search algorithms for the Swarmies to operate autonomously, communicating and interacting as a collective swarm similar to ants foraging for food. In the spaceport's third annual Swarmathon, 23 teams represented 24 minority serving universities and community colleges were invited to develop software code to operate these innovative robots known as "Swarmies" to help find resources when astronauts explore distant locations, such as the Moon or Mars.
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NASA ID
KSC-20180417-PH_FWM02_0022
Date Created
April 17, 2018
Center
KSC
Media Type
image
Photographer
NASA/Frank Michaux
Location
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Com
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