CatomBots are a multi-robot system designed for search and rescue, using collective RF tracking to provide likely areas of survivor movement. Each catom will carry sensors for navigation, being cheap and small enough to fit through areas a larger investigation robot would not be able to. Their independent locomotion will be flexible, with two spring-loaded arms that can also rotate to act as wheels.
Catoms will move together in clusters, using each other to improve movement options and share the power burden of periodically monitoring their surroundings and sending their findings back to the user. Our project will focus on the development of a single cluster, consisting of at least four catoms. While bluetooth is available to our system, we will communicate primarily over WiFi with microROS and ROS. Similar to a SLAM map updating over time, the user will be given a view that displays the area the cluster is exploring.