Introduction
ArtBus is an open source community project under development in the department of Art and Technology Studies, and the department of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
ArtBus is a hardware bus and a communications protocol for relatively low speed, low data rate command and control of discrete sensors and actuators (not streaming sound or video). It is a distributed interface, meaning that different parts of an ArtBus system can be spread about a space such a corridor or gallery. It is conceived of as being useful for small embedded systems in kinetic, robotic, or installation art or design projects. ArtBus is not a piece of hardware, per se, and is in fact hardware impartial. ArtBus "bugs" can be made on any embedded platform or microcontroller. The system is open hardware, open software under the GPL ver.3.
Openness and simplicity are basic virtues of ArtBus. It is designed so near-novice programmers and fabricators can extend the system for their own uses and share their work with others. Specialized devices which provide just the right amount of just the right type of I/O are at the heart of the ArtBus concept.