7 ms·

Thousand-robot swarm self-assembles into arbitrary shapes

tomcam 12y ago
I kept rooting for a flood fill algorithm.
kornork 12y ago
I think people who are unimpressed are underestimating the potential power of this kind of work... this could be the very beginning of a real life holodeck, where trillians of nanobots self assemble.
Sniffnoy 12y ago
I notice the video says "The algorithm for self-assembly allows for the provably correct formation of any simply-connected shape". I wonder what goes wrong if it's not simply-connected. Or is it just that they can't prove that it works in this case?
trhway 12y ago
>Charging was initiated by sandwiching all the robots between two conductive surfaces. sideways - i see a completely automatic Prius(Volt/etc.) plugin just parking between 2 flexible plates sticking from the parking wall. Anyway, feels like Episode 1 is upon us.
rasur 12y ago
That's really pretty impressive work. Will be interesting to see the fruits of their labours at smaller (and larger) scales.
bitwize 12y ago
If we can get these babies down to nanoscale size, will we have invented Transformium?
ChuckMcM 12y ago
That is pretty cool, sort of combines two fun disciplines, robots and cellular automatons. So the art installation here is swarm robots that use pre-programmed neighbor visibility setups but I'm going to have to think longer about ways you could do this with minimal localization information.
jostmey 12y ago
I feel like this research garnered attention only because (1) it uses little robots and (2) it came from Harvard. A computer simulation could have demonstrated the effectiveness of the underlying algorithm just as well. I also suspect if this same project had been done at a state school far fewer people would notice.
- Retric 12y ago
  The underlying algorithm is terrible. It took over 11 hours to get 1,000 robots into a vary rough shape. However, actually building something that works in hardware is hard, Bulding a better algorithm is far less so.
  - robotresearcher 12y ago
    > The underlying algorithm is terrible. How do you arrive at that assessment? Compared to what? Is it at the state of the art or not?
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
  - TrainedMonkey 12y ago
    It took 11 hours because of locomotion method of the Kilobots - they use vibration to move. Without at least looking at the paper, and probably studying it in depth, it would be hard to determine how good the algorithm is. It is definitely nothing revolutionary, however bot movement is not externally controlled. They figure out their own relative positioning and where they need to go. Moreover they do that only based on short range led communications. So they communicate with small number of other bots at the same time (I think one, but I am not 100% sure), as opposed to lets say using central router to communicate all at the same time. TL:DR Sensors, movement systems, and precision are shit on purpose, so important part that distributed algorithm actually worked.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
BrandonMarc 12y ago
Wired has a good write-up, too: http://www.wired.com/2014/08/largest-robot-swarm-ever/ http://www.wired.com/2014/08/largest-robot-swarm-ever/ The quote at the end, about needing a larger table to handle a bigger swarm, made me think of the movie Jaws: "We're going to need a bigger boat."
harpastum 12y ago
That locomotion system is really interesting. Using three rigid legs and vibrating them individually to achieve directed motion. Does anyone have any more information on how that works? Update: I found a paper that describes something similar. It is vastly improved by a vibrating table — Does anyone with access to Science know if Harvard used one? http://wiki.polymtl.ca/nano/images/a/ae/C-2007-NW-AIM-ANguyen.pdf http://wiki.polymtl.ca/nano/images/a/ae/C-2007-NW-AIM-ANguye...
- beambot 12y ago
  I wrote about these (actually, a lot of the prior art) on Hizook: http://www.hizook.com/blog/2011/09/08/infrared-remote-controlled-rc-steerable-vibrobot-created-naghi-sotoudeh http://www.hizook.com/blog/2011/09/08/infrared-remote-contro... They're little more than a vibrobot (ie. a hexbug nano) with dual vibrating motors that preferentially steer and move. It's easy and elegant. They make for a great teaching toy!
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - girvo 12y ago
    Oh so it's like a BEAM bot? Only this seems decidedly not analog, as per what I remember BEAM was supposed to be. That reminds me to go get a soldering iron, I've always wanted to build a solar roller.
  - smackfu 12y ago
    They seem very slow, given that the videos are 40x. That's not frustrating for students?
thekylemontag 12y ago
Extremely impressive. Going to be wild to see where this area of research goes in the next 1-3 years.
trose 12y ago
Next step would be to optimize the placement algorithm I think. The 'K' example is the post obvious. You could have robots start creating the lower right quadrant and correct their position as the rest of the group gathers.
GrantS 12y ago
This work comes out of Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, which was not on my radar before today. Apparently just last week they released some even more impressive work (in the sense that I would not have thought it possible) on a self-folding mobile robot: http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/162/robot-folds-itself-up-and-walks-away http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/162/robot-folds-its... The video of the robot self-folding (and walking away!) at about 1 minute in blew me away, highly recommended to anyone who missed this story last week.
- craigching 12y ago
  If you want to keep up with robotics maybe a bit better, I believe the folding robot was spammed to /r/robotics last week or the week before. I'm not trying to be critical or anything, just letting you know that that link was quite popular on a popular robotics forum ;)
fred_durst 12y ago
> and maybe even art hahahahahaha.... oh scientists.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ6pehGKdW4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ6pehGKdW4
tempodox 12y ago
Minimalistic software is one thing. But a minimalistic hardware system like this is quite a feat. Chapeau!
drd0rk 12y ago
Remember Replicators from Stargate? Be ready.
netcan 12y ago
There is something very powerful when something about a robot's behavior looks animal, at least from the perspective of an animal. It feels like proof we're going in the right direction. Another really good example is a video of one of those boston dynamics animalbots losing its balance on ice and then regaining its footing. It's hard not to anthropomorphize and ascribe an emotion. Even worse when it's deliberately kicked off balance by a human. Bad person! Poor robot. These things move like organic life.
- AYBABTME 12y ago
  I'm speaking through my hat, but I believe many of those behaviors are inspired from the animal kingdom, which could explain why the result looks animal.
mncolinlee 12y ago
I believe I've read this story somewhere before. http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Decision-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451417704/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386990144&sr=1-1&keywords=kill+decision+suarez http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Decision-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451417...
YetAnotherBozo 12y ago
"Each robot has simple capabilities, and is susceptible to many errors. To compensate for this, they must work together." Just like people.

I kept rooting for a flood fill algorithm.

I think people who are unimpressed are underestimating the potential power of this kind of work... this could be the very beginning of a real life holodeck, where trillians of nanobots self assemble.

Sniffnoy 12y ago

I notice the video says "The algorithm for self-assembly allows for the provably correct formation of any simply-connected shape". I wonder what goes wrong if it's not simply-connected. Or is it just that they can't prove that it works in this case?

trhway 12y ago

>Charging was initiated by sandwiching all the robots between two conductive surfaces. sideways - i see a completely automatic Prius(Volt/etc.) plugin just parking between 2 flexible plates sticking from the parking wall. Anyway, feels like Episode 1 is upon us.

rasur 12y ago

That's really pretty impressive work. Will be interesting to see the fruits of their labours at smaller (and larger) scales.

bitwize 12y ago

If we can get these babies down to nanoscale size, will we have invented Transformium?

ChuckMcM 12y ago

That is pretty cool, sort of combines two fun disciplines, robots and cellular automatons. So the art installation here is swarm robots that use pre-programmed neighbor visibility setups but I'm going to have to think longer about ways you could do this with minimal localization information.

jostmey 12y ago

I feel like this research garnered attention only because (1) it uses little robots and (2) it came from Harvard. A computer simulation could have demonstrated the effectiveness of the underlying algorithm just as well. I also suspect if this same project had been done at a state school far fewer people would notice.

Retric 12y ago
The underlying algorithm is terrible. It took over 11 hours to get 1,000 robots into a vary rough shape. However, actually building something that works in hardware is hard, Bulding a better algorithm is far less so.
- robotresearcher 12y ago
  > The underlying algorithm is terrible. How do you arrive at that assessment? Compared to what? Is it at the state of the art or not?
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- TrainedMonkey 12y ago
  It took 11 hours because of locomotion method of the Kilobots - they use vibration to move. Without at least looking at the paper, and probably studying it in depth, it would be hard to determine how good the algorithm is. It is definitely nothing revolutionary, however bot movement is not externally controlled. They figure out their own relative positioning and where they need to go. Moreover they do that only based on short range led communications. So they communicate with small number of other bots at the same time (I think one, but I am not 100% sure), as opposed to lets say using central router to communicate all at the same time. TL:DR Sensors, movement systems, and precision are shit on purpose, so important part that distributed algorithm actually worked.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

BrandonMarc 12y ago

Wired has a good write-up, too: http://www.wired.com/2014/08/largest-robot-swarm-ever/ http://www.wired.com/2014/08/largest-robot-swarm-ever/ The quote at the end, about needing a larger table to handle a bigger swarm, made me think of the movie Jaws: "We're going to need a bigger boat."

harpastum 12y ago

That locomotion system is really interesting. Using three rigid legs and vibrating them individually to achieve directed motion. Does anyone have any more information on how that works? Update: I found a paper that describes something similar. It is vastly improved by a vibrating table — Does anyone with access to Science know if Harvard used one? http://wiki.polymtl.ca/nano/images/a/ae/C-2007-NW-AIM-ANguyen.pdf http://wiki.polymtl.ca/nano/images/a/ae/C-2007-NW-AIM-ANguye...

beambot 12y ago
I wrote about these (actually, a lot of the prior art) on Hizook: http://www.hizook.com/blog/2011/09/08/infrared-remote-controlled-rc-steerable-vibrobot-created-naghi-sotoudeh http://www.hizook.com/blog/2011/09/08/infrared-remote-contro... They're little more than a vibrobot (ie. a hexbug nano) with dual vibrating motors that preferentially steer and move. It's easy and elegant. They make for a great teaching toy!
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- girvo 12y ago
  Oh so it's like a BEAM bot? Only this seems decidedly not analog, as per what I remember BEAM was supposed to be. That reminds me to go get a soldering iron, I've always wanted to build a solar roller.
- smackfu 12y ago
  They seem very slow, given that the videos are 40x. That's not frustrating for students?

thekylemontag 12y ago

Extremely impressive. Going to be wild to see where this area of research goes in the next 1-3 years.

trose 12y ago

Next step would be to optimize the placement algorithm I think. The 'K' example is the post obvious. You could have robots start creating the lower right quadrant and correct their position as the rest of the group gathers.

GrantS 12y ago

This work comes out of Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, which was not on my radar before today. Apparently just last week they released some even more impressive work (in the sense that I would not have thought it possible) on a self-folding mobile robot: http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/162/robot-folds-itself-up-and-walks-away http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/162/robot-folds-its... The video of the robot self-folding (and walking away!) at about 1 minute in blew me away, highly recommended to anyone who missed this story last week.

craigching 12y ago
If you want to keep up with robotics maybe a bit better, I believe the folding robot was spammed to /r/robotics last week or the week before. I'm not trying to be critical or anything, just letting you know that that link was quite popular on a popular robotics forum ;)

fred_durst 12y ago

> and maybe even art hahahahahaha.... oh scientists.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ6pehGKdW4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ6pehGKdW4

tempodox 12y ago

Minimalistic software is one thing. But a minimalistic hardware system like this is quite a feat. Chapeau!

drd0rk 12y ago

Remember Replicators from Stargate? Be ready.

netcan 12y ago

There is something very powerful when something about a robot's behavior looks animal, at least from the perspective of an animal. It feels like proof we're going in the right direction. Another really good example is a video of one of those boston dynamics animalbots losing its balance on ice and then regaining its footing. It's hard not to anthropomorphize and ascribe an emotion. Even worse when it's deliberately kicked off balance by a human. Bad person! Poor robot. These things move like organic life.

AYBABTME 12y ago
I'm speaking through my hat, but I believe many of those behaviors are inspired from the animal kingdom, which could explain why the result looks animal.

mncolinlee 12y ago

I believe I've read this story somewhere before. http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Decision-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451417704/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386990144&sr=1-1&keywords=kill+decision+suarez http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Decision-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451417...

YetAnotherBozo 12y ago

"Each robot has simple capabilities, and is susceptible to many errors. To compensate for this, they must work together." Just like people.