Robot swarm takes many shapes

Kilobots follow simple rules to take the form of a wrench and more

swarm of Kilobots

ALL TOGETHER NOW  With a simple set of instructions, these Kilobots can assemble and form different shapes, without human intervention. 

M. Rubenstein et al/science 2014

hundreds of Kilobots in shape of a wrenchView the video

One Kilobot is not very smart. Each quarter-sized bot scuffles along on three rigid legs and can communicate only with its neighbors. Yet by instructing more than 1,000 Kilobots to follow a few simple rules, computer scientist Radhika Nagpal and her team at Harvard can get the crude bots to assemble into multiple shapes — including a wrench (left), a star and the letter K — without human intervention.

The demonstration, reported in the Aug. 15 Science, is the closest scientists have come to mimicking cooperative swarms in nature, such as ants that clump together to form makeshift rafts (SN Online: 6/17/14). Previous attempts involved smaller swarms of more expensive and sophisticated robots. But Kilobots, which the Harvard team developed in 2011, cost about $20 apiece; they move using the motors that make cellphones vibrate. The trick was developing a program that made the most of the bots’ capabilities, along with patience: The bots need about 12 hours to form each shape.

Eventually researchers hope to develop intelligent swarms of sand-grain-sized robots that autonomously form 3-D structures — say, an actual wrench. 

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