Swarm robots are usually based on duplicates of one unit robotic system that can communicate and collaborate to develop and accomplish tasks beyond the capabilities of the unit robot. The idea of a robotic swarm is to use as many robots as necessary to accomplish a task. This type of robotic systems is very helpful in many tasks and missions such as rescue within a cave, where entry is tight and allows only limited size robots, but the task inside the cave requires bigger and stronger machines. However, there are still multiple challenges facing the realization of these robotic systems such as time and manufacturing capabilities as well as computational capabilities to allow a sophisticated decision making process on site.

Considering the recent advances in additive manufacturing or 3D printing, as well as the parallel advances in mechatronics, a superior process of producing swarm robots, in terms of efficiency and economy is proposed. The new system allows rapid manufacturing, assembly, and duplication of the unit robot, with a reasonable controller, and with the ability to reproduce numbers of units based on mission requirements, shifting some of the complex decision making process to the operator through a compromise between capabilities, production efficiency, and cost. Addition of a new robot or changing a task directive to the system would be as easy as printing, assembling, and adding modified algorithms to the new unit which will join the swarm and redirect the task. Results of this work include building and testing a unit robot with duplicates to demonstrate the proposed ideas.