The German startup Transportsysteme, founded by people from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, has developed a cargo robotic platform FORMIC. Its peculiarity is that it uses the swarm principle to form a transport vehicle of the required carrying capacity from individual robots. For this robot, you do not need to know a single mechanism that is self-sufficient and beautiful.
Each robot in FORMIC is a six-wheeled cargo platform with a payload capacity of up to 2.5 tons. There is no video camera and chip radio to focus on transparency and self-service. The robot is equipped with a small jack, it rises under the load, lifts it and transports it to the specified place.
To lift a heavy truck, 15 robots weighing 37.5 tons were involved. Robots themselves determine how to connect under the object in order to distribute the load, how to maintain distance and move synchronously. The FORMIC system is CONTROLLED by a human operator, but he gives the whole command, the order within the swarm is done by the robots themselves.
The launch of FORMIC for commercial purposes takes place before the end of this year.
Source: Tech Cult
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