The development of BeeHive-Bot Blots began as an exploration into the capabilities of the HexBug robots, Max MSP, Arduino, and OpenSource Bee Hive data. Our exploration aims to visualize the sonic output of an Open Source Bee Hive as it is being established and stabilizing. We were able to implement this sonic input within a combination of Max patch coding and a hacked Arduino code in order to turn this sonic data into signals for a HexBug robot to be controlled.
Ultimately, we ended up harnessing the variations in the hum of the hive to direct the HexBot robots using the peak amplitudes of the sound and tone which were then split into two options resulting in a forward, back, left, and right command option. We then hooked a HexBug remote up to an Arduino Uno computer to be able to run our Max code through to the robot. While a moving robot is interesting, we knew we could push this idea further and decided to give the robots plotting/drawing capabilities. Using the HexBug Spider and Inchworm models, we connected small markers to each leg of the robots to allow them to draw as they move about a space. This, combined with the organic and sporadic sonic input from the hive, resulted in very interesting and unique abstract visuals.
I feel that there is a lot of potential with this technology moving forward. One problem we had encountered was that the robots need to be rebooted every minute or two in order to keep moving at their optimal speed or they get bogged down with their memory. There should be a way to solve this in the code so we don’t have to do a physical reboot every time and this would allow the robots to be able to run until they ran out of battery or ink in the markers. With this capability, we would have entirely new potential with this project including drawing the live audio from the hive and make the drawing space significantly larger. I could imagine this ultimately being upwards of 10′ x 10′ with an enclosure to keep several robots contained within the drawing space. This would result in a very diverse and intriguing composition all based entirely on a living bee hive as it exists in real time.
Beehive Bots from Amanda Kriss on Vimeo.
Code:
<pre><code>
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———–end_max5_patcher———–
</code></pre>