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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on August 14, 2014, 08:18:15 pm

Title: Robot 'Army' Can Swarm into 3D Formations
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 14, 2014, 08:18:15 pm

Robot 'Army' Can Swarm into 3D Formations
LiveScience.com
By Elizabeth Palermo, Staff Writer  55 minutes ago


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The miniature robot army is comprised of 1,024 autonomous Kilobots.



Like an army of miniature robots with a highly effective drill sergeant, 1,024 coin-size machines can race into meticulous formation to create three-dimensional shapes.

Researchers at Harvard University have successfully built a huge horde of tiny bots that use infrared lights and vibration motors to swarm together like insects. 

Nicknamed Kilobots, these small machines measure about an inch (2.5 centimeters) across (about the same as a quarter), and stand just three-quarters of an inch (2 cm) off the ground (about as high as a penny standing on its edge). But despite their dimensions, the Kilobots can accomplish big things. By coordinating their movements, hundreds of these machines come together to form three-dimensional shapes.

This coordinated effort mimics the behavior of ants, bees and other insects that work together in huge numbers to build complex structures, such as colonies, bridges and rafts. But unlike bugs, these bots aren't born team players. Researchers program each robot with advanced algorithms that enable it to move around on its own while simultaneously communicating with the other bots around it.


The Kilobot

The robots are simple, free of many of the sensors and state-of-the-art hardware typically found on other bots. While that means that the Kilobots are somewhat limited in function — they have trouble moving in a straight line, for example — it also means that each bot is inexpensive and easy to build, said Michael Rubenstein, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and lead researcher for the Kilobot project.

In the past, building a giant robot swarm was out of the question for researchers because of the time and money it would cost to develop each bot, Rubenstein said. But at $14 apiece, the Kilobots are a bargain. And each bot takes only 5 minutes to assemble, according to the researchers.

At present, the Kilobots are just working together to form 3D shapes — the letter "K" being their favorite. They can also transform themselves into common tools, such as wrenches and keys.


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The Kilobots swarm, forming the shape of a starfish.


"In the future, we'd like [the Kilobots] to do something functional, but for now, they're just a research platform," Rubenstein told Live Science.

But Rubenstein and his colleagues have big plans for their tiny robots. One day, they'd like the bots to function as "programmable matter," which is based on a concept similar to 3D printing — only without the printer, he said.


Robots of the future

In 3D printing, you tell a printer what shape you want it to make, and it produces it in plastic filament, Rubenstein said. But when you're dealing with programmable robots, the robots behave like the filament. In other words, you tell a swarm of bots what shape you want them to take, and they come together to form that 3D object, he said.

And programmable robots have potential uses that exceed the capabilities of the average 3D printer, Rubenstein noted. For example, he said Kilobots could be used in space one day.

"If an astronaut goes to Mars, they're going to bring all their tools with them," Rubenstein said. "Traditionally, they'd bring a huge toolbox with all the tools they need. But imagine if instead they can just bring a little box of robots and make any tool that they want out of these robots."

Of course, this out-of-this-world idea is just that — an idea. The researchers are still developing the algorithms that could make a Kilobot space journey possible.


The power of the swarm

But even with the algorithms that have already been developed, Rubenstein and his colleagues have made a considerable contribution to the field of robotics, said James McLurkin, a professor of computer science at Rice University in Texas. McLurkin wasn't involved in the Kilobot project, but he has observed the bots in action.

"Large groups of robots working together can solve problems in fundamentally different ways," McLurkin told Live Science. "The goal that we're trying to move forward is understanding the relationship between simple, local interactions and complex group behaviors."

Robots that can function as both individuals and team players are far more versatile than robots that only behave independently, McLurkin said. Swarming robots can be used in variety of ways, he said, from mapping underwater or extraterrestrial terrain to searching for victims of earthquakes or other disasters.

"There are a few classes of tasks that are ideal for a large number of robots: tasks where you need to spread robots over a large geographic area, such as searching and exploration, and tasks where you need to do many operations at the same time, like in construction," McLurkin said.

McLurkin, who is also the roboticist in residence at Manhattan's Museum of Mathematics (MoMath), is currently developing an interactive exhibit for kids that aims to demonstrate just how mighty (and useful) tiny robots can be when they take a page from swarming bugs.

The new research was published online today (Aug. 14) in the journal Science.


http://news.yahoo.com/robot-army-swarm-3d-formations-181109288.html (http://news.yahoo.com/robot-army-swarm-3d-formations-181109288.html)

Title: 'Flashmob' robots swarm themselves into shape
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 14, 2014, 08:43:55 pm

'Flashmob' robots swarm themselves into shape
AFP
27 minutes ago


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KiloBots, a swarm of one thousand simple but collaborative robots in Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 14, 2014 (AFP Photo/Michael Rubenstein)



Washington (AFP) - Without any helping hand, more than 1,000 simple robots the size of votive candles can swarm themselves into complex shape like a star or the letter K, US researchers said Thursday.

The project is the latest breakthrough in robotics from a team at Harvard University that has also created robots inspired by termites.

Called Kilobots, these 1,024 simple machines were designed to act like bees and ants, using vibration motors to glide across surfaces and infrared lights to communicate with each other.

"We are especially inspired by systems where individuals can self-assemble together to solve problems," said Radhika Nagpal, Fred Kavli professor of computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

The project, described in the US journal Science, builds on past advances by including more robots. Previous researchers used dozens or 100s.

Because of the simple design, the robots can only communicate with others that are less than the distance of three robots away, but they need no intervention once they get their pre-programmed order.

Just what they may be used for someday is not known yet.

But whether they act like a school of fish, or an army of ants on tasks like environmental cleanup or disaster response, researchers say they believe the bots could one day be a boon to society.

"Biological collectives involve enormous numbers of cooperating entities -— whether you think of cells or insects or animals —- that together accomplish a single task that is a magnitude beyond the scale of any individual," said lead author Michael Rubenstein, a research associate at Harvard SEAS and the Wyss Institute.


http://news.yahoo.com/flashmob-robots-swarm-themselves-shape-190922654.html (http://news.yahoo.com/flashmob-robots-swarm-themselves-shape-190922654.html)

Title: Rise of the machines? Tiny robot horde swarms to form shapes
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 14, 2014, 08:48:44 pm

Rise of the machines? Tiny robot horde swarms to form shapes
Reuters
By Will Dunham  15 minutes ago


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The Kilobots, a swarm of 1,000 simple but collaborative robots are pictured in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters August 14, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Rubenstein and Science/AAAS/Handout via Reuters



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They look vaguely like miniature hockey pucks skittering along on three pin-like metal legs, but a swarm of small robots called Kilobots at a laboratory at Harvard University is making a little bit of history for automatons everywhere.

Researchers who created a battalion of 1,024 of these robots said on Thursday the mini-machines are able to communicate with one another and organize themselves into two-dimensional shapes like letters of the alphabet.

Much smaller groups of robots have been able to carry out similar tasks, but never a group this size.

The Kilobots are told by the researchers via an infrared transmitter to do a certain job. The robots then do it collectively without further input from a human being.

In a study published in the journal Science, they formed themselves on a large tabletop into the shapes of the letter "K," a star, a solid square and a wrench.


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A combination handout photo, obtained by Reuters August 14, 2014, demonstrates the Kilobots ability, given a two-dimensional image, to follow simple rules to form the same shape. REUTERS/Mike Rubenstein and Science/AAAS/Handout via Reuters


It may be a step forward for collective artificial intelligence, although the researchers acknowledge the Kilobots are not exactly thinking deep thoughts.

"This is a 'collective' of robots - a group of robots that work together to complete a common goal," said Harvard computer scientist Michael Rubenstein, who led the study. "If you call collective artificial intelligence the ability of a 'collective' to start to behave as a single entity, you could call this collective artificial intelligence."

The Kilobots are simple and inexpensive robots built to talk to fellow Kilobots and sense the location of those others using infrared light. They use vibration motors to slide across a surface on their three legs.

But the surface must be very smooth. The one used in this study was essentially an eight foot (2.4 meter) by eight foot "dry erase" board tabletop. Even minor surface friction like that of paper halts them.

The robots measure about 1.2 inches in diameter and two inches tall. The material to build each of them cost just $14.

Rubenstein said the research anticipates a day when people may send many robots acting as a single entity to perform a task - perhaps to a destination like Mars - instead of humans or a single robot.

A "collective" may better handle an unknown environment - for example, forming into a snake shape to navigate sand dunes or like a ball to roll down a hill. He said a "collective" also is "fault tolerant" - if a single robot among 1,000 breaks down, plenty are left to do the job.

The Kilobot name is a play on the word kilobit, meaning 1,024 bits of digital information. But to some it might sound menacing - as in "killer robot" - as if it belongs in a movie like "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."

"I tell people that these robots are not very dangerous. The only way that they could hurt you is if you try to eat one. They can't even go over a piece of paper. So they're kind of stuck where they are," Rubenstein said.

(Reporting by Will Dunham, editing by G Crosse)


http://news.yahoo.com/rise-machines-tiny-robot-horde-swarms-form-shapes-191259241.html (http://news.yahoo.com/rise-machines-tiny-robot-horde-swarms-form-shapes-191259241.html)