Tiny Robots At Play, In Words And Pictures

justin sane writes: "The NY Times has an article about the one of the tiniest functioning robots to date.[Note: free reg. req. ^[?] -- t.] They faced numerous problems and build the robots layer by layer with photolithography on expoxy compounds. The microprocessor is raw (i.e. without a package to save on size). The batteries are the biggest part by far (not surprisingly). There is an MPEG of one in action as it's speed 20 in/min velocity but alas it just looked like a photo album on my M$ player--still the photos are cool. No word if they are working on a port of Embedded Linux that can run the 8k memory space though. That would be my next step, then ... Python ;-)"

Comments

Forth Is Still Good For Something???

[Baldrson]

Amazing that Forth might still be good for something. I didn't think they made memories that small anymore. I mean 8K bytes is about what Western Electric was limiting the Viewtron videotex terminal to in 1981 when I tried to get it's ROM burned with Forth so we could dynamically download graphics macros. Efficient use of RAM as well as 1200bps modem bandwidth. (This is, in fact, what gave rise to Postscript subsequent to our visit to Xerox PARC.)

Collaboration

[Nyarly]

When I was in school, one of my profs had done his dissertation on the idea of robotic collaboration without communication. Essentially, the idea was that robots could use much the same logic they use to navigate an arbitrary set of obstacles to co-operate to acheive a task without needing to communicate anything. Prof's name was James Jennings, and he pretty much made my upper level education worthwhile.

It seems that this sort of behavior would be ideal for these little bastards. I mean, they're cute and all, but radio transmission would zap their batteries, and coordinating communication would eat all their memory. But a small growth in memeory size would be enough to manage the sort of navigation algorithms I recall.

Unfortuantely, mass produced these things are supposed to run a couple hundred USD, each. Tough to rationalize many handy applications for that. Even cat entertainment seems to be a little overkilled by that sort of investment (although they do seem ideal, don't they? Maybe not fast enough.)

Ushers will eat latecomers.

You just know...

[MWoody]

Somewhere, in a bunker deep within Area 51, a team of scientists is already working on a tiny little gun to stick on this thing. Ah, well, it's a sure way to get funding.
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Hardening and radio capabilities, then... space

[MikeCamel]

We finally seem to be getting down to a decent size for planet exploration. Harden them up a bit, and drop them over a terrain. They shouldn't need much cushioning, as they'll weigh very little.

Give them a single burst radio broadcasting capability, so they can report back, and you're away. Cheap, light, low volume - how many can you fit in a Mars probe? This should be great way of exploring new habitats.

One alternative to just dropping them is to land, and then spew them out - that way you get a lot more detailed information about a small area, and can control them so that if one of them finds something interesting, they can all go and investigate. Next step, of course, is to allow them to collaborate, and decide to do it themselves.