Robotics
How does a group of animals, or cells work in apparent coordination without a guiding leader or instruction? Miniature swarming robots--called Kilobots--are able to work together to tackle tasks in the lab, but what can they teach us about the natural world? |
How do you simultaneously control a thousand robots in a swarm? The question may seem like science fiction, but it’s one that has challenged real robotics engineers for decades.
In nature, vast groups of individual elements can cooperate and assemble to create highly complex global behavior through local interactions, from multicellular organisms to complex animal structures such as army ants bivouacs and flocks of birds. In the field of robotics, researchers use inspiration from collective intelligence in nature to create artificial systems with capabilities observed in natural swarms.
the Kilobot robot was first introduced. Now, engineers are programming these tiny independent robots to cooperate in complex group tasks. This research could one day lead to robots that can assemble themselves into machines, or provide insights into how swarming behaviors emerge in nature.
In the future, this kind of research might lead to collaborative robots that could self-assemble into a composite structure. This larger robot could work in dangerous or contaminated areas, like cleaning up oil spills or conducting search-and-rescue activities.
What the researchers are studying with these swarming robots is often called emergent behavior. Complex behaviors that arise from interactions between simple things. And you don’t just see it in nature.
Individually, the Kilobots aren't very smart. They’re designed to be simple. A single kilobot can do only really do three things: Respond to light. Measure a distance, sense the presence of other kilobots. But these are swarm robots. They work together.
How do Kilobots work?
Kilobots were designed by Michael Rubenstein, a research scientist in the Self Organizing Systems Research Group at Harvard University. Each robot consists of about $15 worth of parts: a microprocessor that is about as smart as a calculator, sensors for visible and infrared light, and two tiny cell-phone vibration units that allow it to move across a table. They are powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, like those found in small electronics or watches.These simple robots
are programed all at once, as a group, using infrared light. Each kilobot gets the same set of instructions as the next. With just a few lines of programming, the kilobots, together, can act out complex natural processes."We are now using the Kilobot swarm to investigate collective "artificial" intelligence." |
"We are now using the Kilobot swarm to investigate collective "artificial" intelligence (e.g. sync, collective transport, self-assembly) as well as to explore new theories that link minimal individual capabilities to achievable swarm behaviors. Most recently we conducted our first full thousand robot experiments," claim Rubenstein and his team.
The Kilobot Swarm was chosen by Science Magazine as one of the Top 10 breakthroughs for 2014, and was also highlighted in Nature's magazine's top 10. The Kilobot also won first place in the 2012 African Robotics Network $10 Robot Design Challenge, to develop a low-cost robot for education in developing countries. The Kilobot hardware and software design is available open-source for non-commercial use, and for purchase through K-Team Corp.
SOURCE KQED Science
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