But as small as the components get, installing new features and functions on the diminutive devices is not getting any easier. "Conventional micro-robots have lots of stuff on them," which often adds to their size, Pelrine says. That's why SRI researchers opted for a different design approach, one that off-loads most complexity and size from the mobile-robot equation.
The tiny robotic elements are electromagnetically levitated above the workspace and controlled with digital precision. "What we have is a simple set of magnets to which various tools and end-effectors can be attached," Pelrine explains. The bots, which feature multiple degrees of freedom, are manipulated using magnetic fields that are generated by electric circuits that lie beneath the workspace.
"All the complexity of the typical micro-robot system—the power, the sensors and most of the actuation—is off-board," he says. "That keeps things small, simple and low cost."
The fact that the floating bots suffer "zero wear" as they travel could be a key consideration if engineers were to build large systems with thousands of robotic elements, Pelrine adds.
Building smaller
Magnetic microbots could be downsized to operate in even smaller realms, Pelrine continues. Perhaps by using micro-fabricated magnet technology to build the bots themselves, researchers could at some point move manufacturing operations toward the micron size scale. He stresses, however, that such an advance "would no doubt require successive generations" of the downscaled microbots and control systems.
Such proposed activity would traverse the macro/micro-scale interface, wherein the bots could perform microscale functions and yet be able to move long distances—centimeters or even meters—to directly interact with the macro world as well. At that size level, for instance, a microbot could work on minute objects using a probe tip like those used in atomic force microscopes and then travel macroscopic distances to carry out other chores such as washing or calibrating the tip.
Well-ordered swarms
On the broader scale, the implications of automated systems with potentially millions of tiny, individually controlled agents could be profound. One might imagine swarms of microbots constructing novel, high-performance materials with microstructures that are engineered down to the grain-size scale, Pelrine says.
Even the self-replication of parts by microbots could be feasible, a concept that evokes concepts introduced by K. Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology (Anchor). The SRI team has demonstrated, for example, that the microbots can build end-effectors for other microbots and assemble small robot bodies from magnets to form larger robot bodies.
"It's really a new class of machine," Pelrine concludes, "something that is perhaps hard to recognize at present."
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5 Comments
Add CommentI am so glad that I am studying Artificial Intelligence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLooks like we are getting to the "robotic singularity" in which robots are able to make robots without human intervention. Self-replicating machines.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is what we need to conquer space ala Isaac Asimov.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisImagine a network of nano sized solar collectors held together with nothing but electromagnetism, like a worm it will be propelled through space by the electromagnetic forces of the sun or galaxy, this net could power a ship, cover huge areas of space, collect dust, clear asteroids, build mega-habitats.
With this we can think big from the molecule level up.
As an 8 year old, I watched printing presses operate continuously for hours with the occasional chaotic events of paper flying all over the place as the rest of the machine did what it was supposed to be doing. There were a lot of diconnected sequences that would have their own probabilities of failing. Certainly imagining these robots working together systematically is no longer an option. Here they are! If you have an idealization for something that will reduce rent visit GWP. we don't just talk about dreams we are able to actualize a lot of cool stuff with //////. Profound Absolute Control of position with syncopation is a time honored grail that has been going on for millions of years. I find it incredibly amazing for instance, that water under any+all conditions always knows what to do. Yes, we can boil it, freeze it, spray it, wave it, polish it, clean it, filter it, use it, require it, love it. Water, Magnetism, Fire, Vacuum, It's all good..... and they all interact with each other basically at the same really, real time instantaneous reactions to each other.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you/I had a Hammer, you/I would_____________________ .
Fill that in, in your mind and see if you can build on it with 2 other people. the strongest working group size on the planet. These Robotic super high tech precise tools are radically available and the resulting sorted and aggregated parts stream that we have in our re-purposing stream are our urban gold mines in the USA. It looks like these robots can be scaled to the size of multiple car tire rims, we have enormous sources of friction like rolling a car down a hill to generate enough magnetism to really effectuate incredible structures here and in Space. Get Familial with each other already for goodness sakes the rest of the world knows how to do that with ease.
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Now that they made them what are they good for? Have them build a device or something useful.
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