Robotics startup Antfarm enters automation space with Dustmotes
Robotics startup Antfarm has a new ace up its sleeve called Dustmotes, a home/office automation product. The three-year robotics startup which makes toys using swarm robotics, decided to get into home/office automation product development to support their toy making ambition.
Developed using Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSN) these Dustmotes will be made available to the DIY community at a low cost and to App developers for use in their own wireless project. Dustmotes also aims to bridge the gap between WSN and Internet of things by providing an app between a SmartPhone/Tablet/PC and the WSN. By using a single router connected to a server, the Dustmotes can be used to control upto 255 devices nodes/motes.Talking about his plans Subhojit Basu, founder, Antfarm says the toys part of their business is still in development and hopes to have the first toy in three months. “Dustmotes are an implementation of WSN which forms the backbone technology for our toy. We took the technology that had matured and converted it into a home automation product to generate revenues,” he admits. Dustmotes can also be useful for habitat monitoring to track animals/pets and can be used for security monitoring.
Antfarm has developed an app to support Dustmotes usage in a home/office environment. And now are busy marketing the product. “We have started talking to builders to fit entire buildings with our systems. We have a list of around 15 builders right now in different stages of their projects. We hope to sign in one builder a month for this quarter,” says Subhojit. They are also in the process of filing for patents on Dustmotes.
Antfarm has listed itself on the crowdsourcing platform Kickstarter, and hope to raise $50,000 to help manufacture more Dustmotes and therefore get market acceptance. While the product will be manufactured in India, they will ship it to the US markets and to do so, they are in touch with partners in the US market to help them move forward.
Check out the Dustmotes initiative in detail here.