Researchers Consider The Advantages of 'Swarm Robotics' (msn.com) 29
The Wall Street Journal looks at swarm robotics, where no single robot is in charge, robots interact only with nearby robots — and the swarm accomplishes complex tasks through simple interactions.
"Researchers say this approach could excel where traditional robots fail, like situations where central control is impractical or impossible due to distance, scale or communication barriers." For instance, a swarm of drones might one day monitor vast areas to detect early-stage wildfires that current monitoring systems sometimes miss... A human operator might set parameters like where to search, but the drones would independently share information like which areas have been searched, adjust search patterns based on wind and other weather data from other drones in the swarm, and converge for more complete coverage of a particular area when one detects smoke. In another potential application, a swarm of robots could make deliveries across wide areas more efficient by alerting each other to changing traffic conditions or redistributing packages among themselves if one breaks down. Robot swarms could also manage agricultural operations in places without reliable internet service. And disaster-response teams see potential for swarms in hurricane and tsunami zones where communication infrastructure has been destroyed.
At the microscopic scale, researchers are developing tiny robots that could work together to navigate the human body to deliver medication or clear blockages without surgery... In recent demonstrations, teams of tiny magnetic robots — each about the size of a grain of sand — cleared blockages in artificial blood vessels by forming chains to push through the obstructions. The robots navigate individually through blood vessels to reach a clog, guided by doctors or technicians using magnetic fields to steer them, says researcher J.J. Wie, a professor of organic and nano engineering at Hanyang University in South Korea. When they reach an obstruction, the robots coordinate with each other to team up and break through. Wie's group is developing versions of these robots that biodegrade after use, eliminating the need for surgical removal, and coatings that make the robots compatible with human tissue. And while robots the size of sand grains work for some applications, Wie says that they will need to be shrunk to nano scale to cross biological barriers, such as cell membranes, or bind to specific molecular targets, like surface proteins or receptors on cancer cells.
Some researchers are even exploring emergent intelligence — "when simple machines, following only a few local cues, begin to organize and act as if they share a mind...beyond human-designed coordination."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader fjo3 for sharing the article.
"Researchers say this approach could excel where traditional robots fail, like situations where central control is impractical or impossible due to distance, scale or communication barriers." For instance, a swarm of drones might one day monitor vast areas to detect early-stage wildfires that current monitoring systems sometimes miss... A human operator might set parameters like where to search, but the drones would independently share information like which areas have been searched, adjust search patterns based on wind and other weather data from other drones in the swarm, and converge for more complete coverage of a particular area when one detects smoke. In another potential application, a swarm of robots could make deliveries across wide areas more efficient by alerting each other to changing traffic conditions or redistributing packages among themselves if one breaks down. Robot swarms could also manage agricultural operations in places without reliable internet service. And disaster-response teams see potential for swarms in hurricane and tsunami zones where communication infrastructure has been destroyed.
At the microscopic scale, researchers are developing tiny robots that could work together to navigate the human body to deliver medication or clear blockages without surgery... In recent demonstrations, teams of tiny magnetic robots — each about the size of a grain of sand — cleared blockages in artificial blood vessels by forming chains to push through the obstructions. The robots navigate individually through blood vessels to reach a clog, guided by doctors or technicians using magnetic fields to steer them, says researcher J.J. Wie, a professor of organic and nano engineering at Hanyang University in South Korea. When they reach an obstruction, the robots coordinate with each other to team up and break through. Wie's group is developing versions of these robots that biodegrade after use, eliminating the need for surgical removal, and coatings that make the robots compatible with human tissue. And while robots the size of sand grains work for some applications, Wie says that they will need to be shrunk to nano scale to cross biological barriers, such as cell membranes, or bind to specific molecular targets, like surface proteins or receptors on cancer cells.
Some researchers are even exploring emergent intelligence — "when simple machines, following only a few local cues, begin to organize and act as if they share a mind...beyond human-designed coordination."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader fjo3 for sharing the article.
just keep them away from the stargate and any mili (Score:2)
just keep them away from the stargate and any military system
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Earlier than that. Don't forget about the swam ships seen on Enterprise.
They're run by...the Suluban (sp?) I think.
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Also on Strange New Worlds, the Gorn Hemogeny run those.
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Re: just keep them away from the stargate and any (Score:3)
They aren't quite there yet (Score:2)
Russia doesn't have a modern military. They probably should but they don't because of rampant corruption. That's why I ride tag group of drones can drag them to their knees.
This isn't to say t
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That's hilarious, they don't have a *real* military?
I don't know what you consider a real military, but assuming that you think the US has a real military by your standards, I'll point to Afghanistan, where a rag tag of AK-47 wielding militiamen just kicked their ass out of the country. Same in Iraq, which caused a 10-year trauma in the US population as evidenced by the amount of movies produced about the conflict aiming to heal the psychological wound and the political impact. Same in Vietnam, where the t
Re: They aren't quite there yet (Score:1)
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I don't know what you consider a real military
One example is Israel and we have seen very clearly in Gaza that Hamas prepared for and in fact started with drone warfare. On October 7th drones were used for the initial attacks on the wall. From that point on, there has been almost no mention of and no serious effect from Hamas drones and even Hezbollah drones have been largely ineffective. Iran's drone attack also largely failed and they had to revert to traditional ballistic missile attacks to cause any damage to Israel.
Needless to say, Chinese or Amer
Re: just keep them away from the stargate and any (Score:1)
Anything to make a buck and kill people. (Score:3)
Re:Anything to make a buck and kill people. (Score:5, Interesting)
Would be good in search and rescue applications.
Lost at sea, lost in the desert, etc.
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Have you tried putting up some signs?
Attn Squirrels: don't eat the fruit, it's poisoned
If it works, you know you have some smart squirrels, even if they are somewhat gullible. You could make money selling them to researchers.
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With frickin' lasers, no doubt.
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That would be a guess at this point, but they could be good at construction, at search .... ask what ants and termites are good at, and they could be good at that list and more.
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There was a story on Slashdot the other day about building windmills with blades so large that they can't be transported on the highways. The solution being explored was to build the largest airplane ever to carry them, then create a temporary landing strip for it. A better solution might be a drone swarm could attach to the blade and cooperatively carry the thing to the site. Package too large for a single Amazon drone to deliver? Add more drones.
Replanting coral reefs. Keeping elephants from raiding
No. (Score:2)
The best thing for the environment, in the long run, is to let the wildfires burn themselves out. Sure, try to stop the fires from burning down homes, but grassland and forests should be fair game.
Not exactly a new idea (Score:3)
Obviously only useful in a lab setting, but still a physically realized example of swarm robotics over 12 years ago.
as the song said... (Score:4, Interesting)
...The ants go marching by.
There is a reason they are so successful.
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Incels have the weirdest fantasies.
Catch that Rabbit (Score:2)
Reminded me of that Asimov story about such robots and the problems.
Musk's Robot Army (Score:2)
Elon Musk is building a robot army.
Given that he has already turned Twitter into fascist X and his Grok AI is programmed to spout Nazi fascist ideals, I can't wait for his robot army to swarm my town.