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How Could Swarms of Robots Help Humanity?
ceview writes "Researchers at Sheffield Centre for Robotics have demonstrated that a swarm of 40 robots can carry out simple fetching and carrying tasks. This is done by grouping around an object and working together to push it across a surface. They believe that this could provide opportunities for us mere humans to harness such power to do all sorts of things like safety — what like catching falling workers perhaps? Youtube action here."
My father had a ranch. We used to hire 50 to 60 skinjobs to fetch tomatoes. You know it takes two people to fetch the same tomatoes now.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
swarms of robots.
i could live a little longer in this prison
SImple fetching and carrying tasks?
Let's replace the Federal Government with uncorruptable simple robots. Constituents concerns can be tablulated by computer to steer voting in the Congress and Senate. Office flunkies and staffers go without saying. Entire Agencies could go robotic. The White House has had Repubmocrat bots for around a century now, this could be replaced with a party neutral machine with much nicer latex skin than the past models have had.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
The next time we need to hunt down someone in a cave complex we can use a drone swarm to autonomously explore all the holes. We'll only need the giant thermobaric bombs once the right caves are identified.
Yay drone swarms.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
>> humans to harness such power to do all sorts of things like safety — what like catching falling workers perhaps
Doubt it. However, I could see a bunch of these being loosed by a in a war zone: individually find the big metal ship, clump together beneath the waterline, go boom. Or, to clear the way for a raid, something like for the next 6 hours, find all the moving human-like shapes, get close, go boom (or clump at doors, go boom).
What other use would there be for a swarm of evil, er, I mean, mini robots at my command?
Hmm, I suddenly feel a bout of particularly malevolent laughter coming on...
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
They don't seem to be able to accomplish much or cooperate very well. Better work with swarm robots has been done.
One of the better robotics ideas of the 1980s was a pair of small (about 1 cubic foot) robots with small forklifts. They could cooperate to move large objects, like a couch. One was in charge, and one was the helper. Once both robots were in position, force feedback and very limited communication was enough to coordinate them.
That's a useful concept to develop further today. In the 1980s, navigation and vision weren't good enough to make this work reliably. Now they are.
They believe that this could provide opportunities for us mere humans to harness such power to do all sorts of things like safety
En anglais, s'il vous plait.
what like catching falling workers perhaps?
Oy vey.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
If a robot could be designed that could distinguish weed from crop, it would eliminate the need for most herbicides and herbicide resistant GMO seeds
This is done by grouping around an object and working together to push it across a surface.
Ah, I can see the future now: Instead of developing expensive autonomous driving vehicles, you order a bunch of cheap robots that push you to work every day!
There are fewer illiterates than people who can't read.
Could you elaborate on #15?
most inventions were made out of necessity to solve a problem, now we make shit and sit there looking at it going "wut now?"
Loki: I come with glad tidings of a world made free.
Nick Fury: Free from what?
Loki: Freedom.
How Could Swarms of Robots Help Humanity?
Of course they would help. Unless they went crazy and started hurting people. Which they almost certainly would.
I think most people here are missing the point. I doubt the aim of his research is to develop things that are immediately useful. It is more about understanding the behaviour of complex multi agent systems. A lot of systems around us follow this same model. For example, the economy is just the sum of the actions of many "simple" agents. This research aims to look into exactly that. Really it is amazing that few simple agents without any higher form of control can accomplish anything when their behaviour is based on maybe 2-3 rules.
The goals of this research are very simple and very controlled. Take for example the pushing of the box. It was one box in a pristine room with one target. The pushing algorithm is extremely simple. Move randomly until you can not see red and then move toward the last location that you saw red.
What happens if there is a small obstacle on the floor and the object can not be pushed straight toward the floor?
What happens if the targets not visible from the object?
What happens if there are several possible targets and several possible objects to push?
How do the robots know when to stop pushing?
Sure simple robots with simple programming given simple tasks in a simple environment will work. The real world is rarely that simple. As one throws more real world parameters into the situation the complexity rises exponentially.
They believe that this could provide opportunities for us mere humans to harness such power to do all sorts of things like safety — what like catching falling workers perhaps?
Is that worker in an uncontrolled fall or are they jumping? When you add decision making into a process it becomes much more complex than pushing or sorting.
By tracking down and eliminating all the stupid ones?
Or all members of Congress.
But I repeat myself.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Andrew, do you remember that time at bandcamp when you had that piccolo up your ass?
Remember how I said I deleted the pictures?
I lied.
What a horror that would be, the new sound of terror is a high pitched mosquito-like whine. I'm fairly sure there are rules against targeting civilians in war though, and this would go right over the line.
Combine swarm robots and nanotechnology and you could have a way to non-surgically (or at least outpatient procedure) remove tumors. Maybe inject them through an IV?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Pick up trash.
Mow lawns.
Sort trash to determine recyclables.
Fix potholes.
Paint over graffiti.
Repair underground infrastructure - gas and water pipes.
Detect leaks in underground infrastructure.
Remediate contaminated soil.
So many options.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Could guard airspace, self refuel, bring down drones, and make an impenetrable shield!
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd