The Collective: Largest Swarm of Robots Ever

The Collective: Largest Swarm of Robots Ever
2014 08 14

From: http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=31367

Is this simply incredible, or simply horrifying?

Roboticists have created a collective of 1,000 like-minded tiny robots swarming together in a hive to form symbols.

Introducing the "Kilobot Swarm". (More like ’killerbot", am I right?)

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Scientists Program Largest Swarm of Robots Ever

Alone, the simple little robot can’t do much, shuffling around on three vibrating tooth-pick legs. But working with 1,000 or more like-minded fellow bots, it becomes part of a swarm that can self-assemble into any two-dimensional shape.

These are some of the first steps toward creating huge herds of tiny robots that form larger structures—including bigger robots. Building swarming robots can also help scientists understand collective behavior seen in nature, from bird flocks and fish schools to networks of cells and neurons.

In the past, researchers have only been able to program at most a couple hundred robots to work together. Now, researchers at Harvard University have programmed the biggest robot swarm yet.

“It’s really a big accomplishment,” said roboticist Hod Lipson of Cornell University, who wasn’t involved in the work. “It’s the first demonstration of this swarm robotic behavior at the scale of 1,000 physical robots.” Getting even tens or a hundred robots to work together is difficult, with a lot of algorithmic and technical challenges, he says.

Source: Wired.com

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Amaterasu Solar on August 14, 2014 at 6:18pm

The danger is not in the robots but in the People that program them...

Permalink Reply by DTOM on August 14, 2014 at 6:52pm

...a moot point, and a statement that could be applied to any 'tool', let alone most modern technological advances.

However, given that most people who will read this ARE aware that there IS a minority of pyschopaths who are developing technologies such as this with the sole intention of using it as a weapon against the majority of the world's population - it is vital that truth seekers are aware of the latest technological advances that could be implemented in the weapon systems the elite plan to use against us.

Hostile machines or human creators, operators, technicians etc - when the technology is put into action against the people of this world, the threat will be seen as one and the same, and dealt with accordingly.

Permalink Reply by Amaterasu Solar on August 15, 2014 at 5:00am

Oh, no doubt! But there are many very good robots, too. I just am not pleased with Those who look at ALL robots and fear them.

Permalink Reply by Central Scrutinizer on August 14, 2014 at 7:20pm