A flock of creatures rests on tree trunks in a dark winter forest in the Netherlands. The creatures glow red, responding to each other–conversing through light. Their flickering appears random, but step back, and a pattern begins to emerge.
The creatures aren’t bugs or birds–they’re robots that the Netherlands-based artist collective WERC installed and programmed to constantly interact with each other. The robotic swarm–called Pixi–was on display in the Buitencentrum Boomkroonpad forest area near the village of Drouwen in the Netherlands as a nighttime installation in the fall and winter of 2017. They were inactive during the day, preserving their batteries, but at night they came alive.
Thousands of wooden hexagonal robots were outfitted with blinking red lights and secured to tree trunks. Once initiated by a visitor entering with a specialized lantern, the Pixies begin to pass signals to each other. Controlled by a microprocessor that contains a set of rules that dictate its behavior, each robot acts based on what messages it receives from its neighbors, which it interprets as speed, duration, intensity, and color of light. As it blinks, it sends out more messages to its neighbors, passing along instructions based on internal code. When viewed up close, the bots’ blinking patterns don’t make much sense–but when viewed from far away, they turn into large-scale patterns. It’s almost like how flocks of birds, swarms of fireflies, or schools of fish act–individually, but in unison.
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: New Python Releases, an ESP32+MicroPython IDE and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!
