Transforming Robots: Smart Blocks

Andy Smith writes: "The BBC reports that researchers from Dartmough College in New Hampshire aim to create robots made from 'smart building blocks.' The idea is that the robots can then transform into other objects. According to the story, the reseachers eventually 'hope to use thousands of microscopic units to make infinitely flexible machines, fit for any task'. The article goes into a lot more detail about how the units will work, and the research that is currently being done."

Comments

It's "Dartmouth".

[Alik]

Dartmough? Feh. They mean Dartmouth College, my very own alma mater. I graduated in the same class as the guy who built the little block they show in the picture.

Yes, the idea of miniaturization is kind of hype. OTOH, Daniela trained under Dartmouth's MEMS guy back at Cornell, so she has some contacts in the field. He's already built (years ago, actually) prototypes of these "smart manipulating surfaces". They look like just a flat chip, but when powered, they'll spin things around, act as conveyor belts, and generally create 2D "force fields".

Shrinking the things isn't the issue. Even if they're an inch cubed, they could still be useful, especially if we borrowed from Lego the idea of having a few "special bricks". The problem is control. Can you imagine having to specify your body one cell at a time? These things are going to need to be able to work out where they should be with minimal cues from the central brain. She does have some work in the field (algorithms to move around furniture with a team of robots, all of whom have limited sensing and communications power; also, the stuff I worked on with transportable agents), but there's a long way to go.

Her own page on the subject is here.

AI is more important than "morphing"

[MotoMannequin]

I cannot morph, yet I am suitable to many varied tasks. An application to this type of technology may be to produce a robot that can repair itself when it is damaged, but comments from the article make me doubt they are on the right track:

She suspects that a process of top-down planning that "cascades" the process of form-changing will be needed to make the system change shape quickly.

They will not be able to make a robust system by trying to control these "building blocks" from the top down. The cells in our body are not being told by a controller that they are an arm, or a kidney, the information is stored in the DNA. Yet our bodies do have arms and kidneys.

Interesting research into complex systems has shown that robust systems are not controlled top-down, but are the emergent properties of lost of small agents that are reacting with each other based on a simple set of rules.

This type of research is the holy grail for scientists in this field, but we are still stumbling on much simpler problems right now.

Moto Mannequin

"With all appliances, and means to boot!" - William Shakespeare