Swarm Robotics and Advanced Engineering Patterns
Summary
This capstone chapter pairs multi-robot coordination with advanced software engineering patterns. Students program leader/follower BLE robots, implement collective obstacle avoidance and convoy following, and explore emergent behaviors and distributed systems thinking. The chapter also covers the advanced patterns that power professional robot software: project planning and team collaboration, state machines for structured behavior control, multithreading and asynchronous programming, PID control for precision motor feedback, encoder-based odometry, and data logging for analysis.
Concepts Covered
This chapter covers the following 18 concepts from the learning graph:
- Swarm Robotics
- Emergent Behavior
- Leader-Follower Pattern
- BLE Leader Robot Code
- BLE Follower Robot Code
- Collective Obstacle Avoid
- Swarm Algorithm Design
- Distributed Systems
- Convoy Following
- Synchronized Swarm Dance
- Project Planning
- Team Collaboration
- State Machine Pattern
- Multithreading Basics
- Asynchronous Programming
- PID Control Overview
- Encoder Motor Feedback
- Data Logging
Prerequisites
This chapter builds on concepts from:
- Chapter 1: Introduction to Computational Thinking and Physical Computing
- Chapter 4: Control Flow, Functions, and Exception Handling
- Chapter 5: Data Structures, Modular Programming, and Version Control
- Chapter 7: PWM, Motor Speed Control, and Actuators
- Chapter 10: Robot Behaviors and Autonomous Navigation
- Chapter 11: Wireless Networking and Web Servers
- Chapter 12: Bluetooth Low Energy Fundamentals
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