Hive-1 & Hive-2 – Autonomous Swarm Robots

Project Overview

Hive-1 and Hive-2 are custom-designed autonomous swarm robots built around a modular PCB architecture using Arduino Nano ESP32, omniwheel mobility, and lightweight sensing pipelines. Both platforms were engineered for synchronized multi-robot experiments, distributed control, and indoor localization.

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Hive-1: Sensor-Rich Swarm Platform

Key Features

• Contributed to the design of three custom PCBs integrating:

  • Arduino Nano ESP32
  • LiDAR
  • SLAM module
  • 9-axis IMU
• Implemented AprilTag + wheel-odometry localization for coordinated swarm motion
• Developed firmware for synchronized behaviors, wireless communication, and sensor calibration
• Designed the charging dock and power management system

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Hive-2: Lightweight Micro-Swarm Variant

Hive-2 retained the same motion and communication system as Hive-1 but removed the LiDAR + SLAM modules to create a lighter, lower-cost platform for large-scale swarm deployments.

Key Differences

• Same ESP32-based PCB, IMU, and omniwheel system
• No LiDAR / SLAM → reduced power draw & simplified sensing
• Designed for larger swarms and rapid manufacturing
• Firmware reuse for formation control and coordinated multi-robot behaviors

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Capabilities

• Coordinated omniwheel motion
• Indoor localization using AprilTags
• Wireless inter-robot communication
• Scalable swarm behaviors (leader–follower, formations, synchronized motion)

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Future Work

• Add UWB localization
• Shared map construction across the swarm
• Improved inter-robot communication layers
• Publish PCB + firmware open source