You do it like this - remember you can move the two facing plates as far as you like. On a 1-d surface, with space for 8 arms, you might get this (forgive awful ascii-art):
Step 1: Start just overlapping, and build:
_______1....... ........
_______1....... .......2
Step 2: Slide half-way back, and build
___1....... .......2
___1...4... ...3...2
Step 3: Slide half the remaining distance back, and build
_1...4... ...3...2
_1.7.4.6. .5.3.8.2
Step 4: Slide the one remaining slot back, and build
1.7.4.6. .5.3.8.2
1D7B406A
95F3C8E2
Presto! 2^n robots in n steps, with no relocation required. Once you've made a line of robots like this, repeat by translating in the other dimension after each step, and voila!
In order to allow the final plane to do non-trivial stuff after its finished, you give each machine a unique address etched into the control electronics layer rather than the MEMS layer. But in order to allow the things to operate in lockstep, you can also have a "multicast" address (255.255.255.255?) which will address all devices on the chip. This would be useful even after manufacture as a master reset or as a way of shuffling finished components off the chip at the end.
Slashdot Mirror
Sean Ellis
Discovery.com have their own interactive ISS model, which includes a construction timeline, amongst other things.
It's designed for high-bandwidth connections, so 56k users will have to wait a while for download, but it's pretty much worth the wait.
Since I haven't downloaded the NASA version (6MB+!) I can't compare the two directly, but the Discovery one's pretty good.
Sean Ellis
You do it like this - remember you can move the two facing plates as far as you like. On a 1-d surface, with space for 8 arms, you might get this (forgive awful ascii-art):
Step 1: Start just overlapping, and build:
_______1......._______1.......
Step 2: Slide half-way back, and build
___1.......___1...4...
Step 3: Slide half the remaining distance back, and build
_1...4..._1.7.4.6.
Step 4: Slide the one remaining slot back, and build
1.7.4.6.1D7B406A
95F3C8E2
Presto! 2^n robots in n steps, with no relocation required. Once you've made a line of robots like this, repeat by translating in the other dimension after each step, and voila!
In order to allow the final plane to do non-trivial stuff after its finished, you give each machine a unique address etched into the control electronics layer rather than the MEMS layer. But in order to allow the things to operate in lockstep, you can also have a "multicast" address (255.255.255.255?) which will address all devices on the chip. This would be useful even after manufacture as a master reset or as a way of shuffling finished components off the chip at the end.
Sean Ellis