Most systems designed for multi-robot operation are relatively small and cheap, leading to inherent size-, weight-, and power- (SwaP) constraints which decreases the likelihood that any single platform can accomplish every necessary piece of a broader task. Deploying different types of robots at the same time allows them to cover eachother’s weaknesses while expanding the addressable task space. Despite the promise of heterogeneous systems, the majority of multi-robot research focuses on homogeneous platforms. Our work instead aims to solve specific open problems in this relatively new domain—like task allocation, motion planning, and co-localization—in the context of impactful real-world applications, like unexploded ordance (UXO) remediation, which would benefit from heterogeneity. 

Most work exploring high agent-count (“swarm”) multi-robot systems has focused on abstract control theory and scaling, safety, and success guarantees in simulation. Progress in these areas has not translated to real-world deployment, and the complexity of research-grade platforms makes them unsuitable for most potential users. We have begun to develop the Hawaii Intelligence Vehicles for Education (HIVE) Kit, based on a low-cost, open-source modular swarm robot platform. The goal is to bridge the gap between hobby- and industry-grade mobile robots available in the area of high agent count systems. By building the platform to make use of state-of-the-art software stacks like ROS2 and Nav2, it ensures plug-and-play compatibility with modern control algorithms and a higher likelihood of adoption by educators and researchers around the world. 

As they work and play, humans are being increasingly asked to live alongside small flying robots, almost unvaryingly quadrotors (“drones”). Drones are unpleasant to work with, especially nearby and/or indoors: their quickly spinning propellers, exceeding 50,000 RPM at MAV scales, produce a high-pitched whine, generate downwash which disrupts operations, and cause stress levels comparable to a jet flyover. Unfavorable scaling laws governing small propellers and motors also limit their thrust efficiency and flight time, often to just a few minutes. Together, these represent fundamental and physics-driven barriers to effective, acceptable, and sustained indoor flight.

Our work offers a radical alternative: silent, solid-state, and soft micro air vehicles propelled by atmospheric ion thrusters. These platforms use electroaerodynamic (EAD) thrust, which is produced by the momentum-transferring collisions of ions with neutral air molecules, enabling safe, quiet, and efficient operation in constrained environments. Key gaps remain in the areas of design optimization, control, and integration to make useful, autononomous ion-propelled robots.