Shape Changing Robots Are Now A Reality

Shape Changing Robots Are Now A Reality

A team of acientists have developed Kilobots. This swarm of robots can form any given shape.    Tuesday, August 19, 2014:  Scientists from Harvard have succeeded in making Robot similar to Chitti (the robot from movie Robot by Rajnikanth). Scientists have created robotic swarm, in which there are 1024 robots with legs as tiny as pins. These small robots can be given any predetermined shape. Researchers gave the demo by sending a command to these swarm that said, form the shape of star fish. The robots blinked and formed shape of a star. Robots could also form the shape of letter ‘K’. These bots have been given a name as, ‘Kilobots’. The structure of these robots is very simple, they have just three tiny legs, they are controlled by infrared signals. Kilobots showed that very complex structures can be built using very simple number of structure. This is similar to organism formed by trillions of individual cells or flowing murmuration of stars in the sky. The team led by Radhika Nagpal and Professor of Computer Science, Fred Kavli from Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) worked on this project along with Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering’s Core Faculty Member within Harvard University campus. The Indian origin scientist, Radhika Nagpal said, “The idea is inspired by the team system, where individuals come together to solve any problem. Kilobots work on set of instructions, there is no requirement of intervention or micromanagement to make these Kilobots work.” Four leading Kilobots form coordinate system while other Kilobots are guided using the 2D image of same. Kilobots follow edge of a group, they track distance from origin and maintain relative location to take according turns while forming a group, this action of kilobots termed as primitive behavior. These Kilobots are designed to learn from mistakes and errors, hence if traffic jam forms while forming some shape, robots nearby sense it using relative location and move in such a way that it fixes the error in shape. Kilobots are equipped with vibrating motors, which is used to control movement of Kilobots. To measure relative location, proximity of neighboring Kilobots, they are equipped with infrared transmitter and receiver. It is the basic communicate medium for Kilobots. A research associate at Harvard’s SEAS and lead author of the project, Michael Rubenstein said, “Kilobots are much more simpler than complex conventional robots. The accuracy of relative location sensing varies from robot to robot, which makes it tough to make them move in straight line. Hence, the reliability of Kilobots is less. Their abilities vary from robot to robot.”