Audio Kinesis Swarm Subwoofer Awarded 2019 Golden Ear Award by Robert E. Greene

" Would this work if the speakers weren’t on t floor but up higher say close to the ceiling or in the ceiling facing down?" 

Yes. 

What would be really sweet is, three subs near the ceiling and the fourth one closer to the floor. This would usefully distribute the sources in the vertical dimension, complementing the distribution in the horizontal plane. But if that’s not feasible, four on the ceiling is just as good as four on the floor. 

Also, it is not necessary that all four subs be identical. Earl’s personal first-generation multisub system included a single massive ubersub that went considerably deeper than the other three.

Duke

Congrats definitely deserves it!!!

Congratulations Duke!  I think it's well deserved, and whether it's "unique" or not, who cares.  You brought something to market that's affordable and from all accounts, works great.  I've yet to hear of one person that said "yeah, I tried it but it didn't work for me".

If I didn't already have 8 subs, I would have certainly considered it for my system.  I have employed the concept in my system, using 4 of the subs I already had throughout my room and to my ears the results are spectacular.  I have a big room with two relatively small Harbeth Super HL5 Plus speakers.  The difference between having the subs on and off is night and day.

If you can achieve similar results for less than half of what all my subs cost (two Rythmik F25s and two SVS SBS13 Ultras), and take up less space, have less controls to fiddle with, that deserves an award (or more).

" If I didn’t already have 8 subs... "

Your eight subs intelligently distributed are probably twice as smooth as my four.

In general, the in-room smoothness goes up, and the spatial variance (variation in frequency response from one location to another) goes down, as the number of intelligently distributed sources increases. So two subs are twice as smooth as one; four subs are twice as smooth as two; and eight subs are grounds for divorce in most jurisdictions.

So I stopped at four.

Duke

Congrats Duke on additional recognition for your research and efforts and also for selflessly sharing links to DIY products that might compete with your own.

 I’ve been keen to try the swarm arrangement but so far haven’t adventured beyond two subs. My reluctance to invest in more hardware comes from my skepticism, which comes from having read people commenting that pretty much any sub will do, as long as there’s four or more.
I can’t get beyond the notion that some subs just don’t sound very good, and multiplying an average sounding sub by four surely doesn’t equate to good quality bass.... how can it?
Smoother and a more even response maybe, but what about tight, extended and tuneful bass well integrated with the mains? 
I use two HSU subs in my system, both older designs (VTF-1 VTF-2). They’re ok but not great. How can adding two more of the same fix the deficiencies of these mediocre subs.
I’m not trying to pick a fight, I’m just genuinely curious and trying to learn.