Robot swarm takes many shapes Kilobots follow simple rules to take the form of a wrench and more ne Kilobot is not very smart. Each quarter-sized bot scuffles along on three rigid legs and can communicate only with its neighbors. Yet by instructing more than 1,000 Kilobots to follow a few simple rules, computer scientist Radhika Nagpal and her team at Harvard can get the crude bots to assemble into multiple shapes—including a wrench (left), a star and the letter K—without human intervention. The demonstration, reported in the Aug. 15 Science, is the closest scientists have come to mimicking cooperative swarms in nature, such as ants that clump together to form makeshift rafts (SN Online: 6/17/14). Previous attempts involved smaller swarms of more expensive and sophisticated robots. But Kilobots, which the Harvard team developed in 2011, cost about $20 apiece; they move using the motors that make cellphones vibrate. The trick was developing a program that made the most of the bots’ capabilities, along with patience: The bots need about 12 hours to form each shape. #Twitter https://twitter/AmazinggNature #Facebook https://facebook/pages/Amazing-Nature/152792034900945 https://facebook/groups/1507299576148465/ #Googleplus https://plus.google/u/0/communities/109839178165912134415 https://plus.google/u/0/b/114329059835553464142/114329059835553464142/posts
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 15:34:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015