Chris on AI, autonomous swarming, home automation and Rust!

This episode is a special crossover between the Practical AI podcast and The Changelog podcast. Chris was recently invited by longtime friends Jerod Santo and Adam Stacoviak, cohosts of The Changelog, to join them on the show. They discuss AI, drones, robotics, swarming technology, and the rise of high-performance edge computing with Rust. Chris points out that open source software, small AI models, and affordable hardware are making home automation and local AI accessible to everyone. From automating household functions to experimenting with drones and single-board computers, Chris describes how hands-on maker projects are shaping a bright future for physical AI, on small budgets and right from the comfort of your own home. Featuring: Jerod Santo – LinkedIn Adam Stacoviak – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Sponsors: Miro – Get the right things done faster with Miro's Innovation Workspace. AI Sidekicks, instant insights, and rapid prototyping—transform weeks of work into days. No more scattered docs or endless meetings. Help your teams get great done at Miro.com. Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalai Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here! This week we have extended show notes below from Chris! Swarming & Fully Autonomous Multi-Agent UxV Systems Chris’s Definition of Swarming (anchor link in show notes) Chris’s definition of Swarming “Swarming occurs when numerous independent fully-autonomous multi-agentic platforms exhibit highly-coordinated locomotive and emergent behaviors with agency and self-governance in any domain (air, ground, sea, undersea, space), functioning as a single independent logical distributed decentralized decisioning entity for purposes of C3 (command, control, communications) with human operators on-the-loop, to implement actions that achieve strategic, tactical, or operational effects in the furtherance of a mission.” © 2025 Chris Benson Conceptual Foundations Swarm Robotics – Wikipedia High-level overview of swarm robotics as decentralized robot collectives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_robotics Swarm Robotic Platforms – Wikipedia Survey of hardware platforms used in swarm robotics research. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_robotic_platforms Swarm Intelligence – Wikipedia Broader algorithms and theory behind collective intelligence (beyond robots). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence Ant Robotics – Wikipedia Nature-inspired “ant-like” robotics as a special case of swarm robotics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_robotics Open Research & Multi-Robot Resources (Stepping-Stones Toward True Swarms) Programming Multiple Robots with ROS 2 (online book) Free book on multi-robot systems, ROS 2, and the Robot Middleware Framework (RMF). https://osrf.github.io/ros2multirobotbook Simulation with ROS 2 & Gazebo (ROS 2 Humble tutorial) Official tutorial on connecting ROS 2 to Gazebo simulation. https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Tutorials/Advanced/Simulators/Gazebo/Gazebo.html Spawning Multiple Robots in Gazebo with ROS 2 Hands-on tutorial to launch N robots in Gazebo, each with its own namespace. https://www.theconstruct.ai/spawning-multiple-robots-in-gazebo-with-ros2 ROS 2 Multi-Robot Simulation Best Practices (Discourse thread) Discussion of patterns for multi-robot systems (domains, namespaces, Nav2, etc.). https://discourse.openrobotics.org/t/multi-robot-simulation-best-practices/38987 Getting Hands-On: Consumer Robotics, ROS 2 & Gazebo ROS 2 (Robot Operating System 2) Official ROS 2 Documentation – Humble (LTS) Main docs for ROS 2 Humble (recommended distro) with tutorials and APIs. https://docs.ros.org/en/humble ROS 2 Installation Guide (Humble) Step-by-step install on supported platforms. https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation.html “From Zero to Robotics Hero: A Beginner’s Guide to ROS 2” (article) Beginner-friendly overview with ideas for where to go next (MoveIt, Nav2, multi-robot, etc.). https://riyagoja.medium.com/from-zero-to-robotics-hero-a-beginners-guide-to-ros-2-90ac9c3b87ba ROS 2 Tutorial for Beginners (2025 guide) Up-to-date intro that walks you from install to simulating your first robot in 2025. https://www.timesofexplore.com/2025/10/ros2-tutorial-beginners-build-first-robot-2025.html Gazebo Simulation Gazebo Sim – Official Site Modern Gazebo (Ignition) simulator; models, worlds, and docs. https://gazebosim.org Getting Started with Gazebo (Docs) Official “start here” guide for using Gazebo and Gazebo Fuel assets. https://gazebosim.org/docs/latest/getstarted Classic Gazebo Tutorials (still useful for fundamentals) https://classic.gazebosim.org/tutorials micro-ROS (ROS 2 on Microcontrollers) micro-ROS – ROS 2 for Microcontrollers Official site for running ROS 2 on tiny embedded boards. https://micro.ros.org micro-ROS GitHub Organization Repositories, examples, and tutor...