A groundbreaking project at the University of York is to investigate how swarms of miniature robots can work and evolve together.
The aim of the ‘Symbiotic Evolutionary Robot Organisms’ project, or ‘Symbrion’, is to understand the principles that govern how robots can form themselves into a single artificial organism. The technique enables them to interact collectively with the physical world, and might ultimately be applied to real-world tasks such as rescuing earthquake victims.
‘Multi-robot organisms’ are made up of large swarms of individual robots, each slightly larger than a sugar cube, which work together to form a single artificial life-form. The organisms are able to share information and energy with one another, and to manage their own hardware and software.
The University of York and the University of the West of England are among ten international partners. York’s role, led by Dr Jon Timmis and Professor Andy Tyrrell of the Intelligent Systems Group in the Department of Electronics, is to develop an artificial immune system which can protect both the individual robots and the larger collective organism.
The immune system will be able to detect faults and make recommendations to a high-level control system about corrective action, much as a person’s adaptive immune system monitors status to keep the body healthy.
When the robots join together into a single organism, each robot will be able to share this crucial information with others, creating an overall system which can evolve in the face of new problems – just as a natural immune system is able to cope with unfamiliar pathogens.
Jon Timmis said: “This is an increasingly important area of research. We may be able to use the collaborative power of many robots in situations where human intervention isn't possible. For instance, a Symbrion swarm could be released into a collapsed building following an earthquake, and form themselves into teams to lift rubble or search for survivors.
“This kind of thing is clearly a long way from being realised, but work in this project will allow us to start building the robots of the future.”
Source: University of York
Related stories:
Grief leads father to create bomb-defusing robot
(AP) -- The knock on Brian Hart's door came at 6 a.m. An Army colonel, a priest and a police officer had come to tell Hart and his wife that their 20-year-old son had been killed when his military vehicle was ambushed in Iraq.
Planets Align for the 4th of July
News Flash: On 4th of July weekend, NASA forecasts lights in the sky. No, not those lights. Look beyond the fireworks. Almost halfway up the western sky, just above the twilight glow of sunset, a trio of worlds is gathering: Saturn, Mars and the crescent Moon.
Care-O-bot 3: Always at your service
Who doesn’t long for household help at times? Service robots will soon be able to relieve us of heavy, dirty, monotonous or irksome tasks. Research scientists have now presented a new generation of household robots, the “Care-O-bot® 3”.
Political participation is partially rooted in genetic inheritance
The decision to vote is partly genetic, according to a new study published in the American Political Science Review. The research, by James H. Fowler and Christopher T. Dawes, of the University of California, San Diego and Laura A. Baker, of the University of Southern California, is the first to show that genes influence participation in elections and in a wide range of political activities.
A bright future for plastics -- robot 'skin,' flexible laptops and electric posters
WITH market analysts predicting a ten fold increase in the value of the organic light emitting display industry, from £1.5 billion to £15.5 billion, by 2014, it is no wonder that scientists and governments alike are keen to advance research into "plastic electronics".
Tufts to develop morphing 'chemical robots'
Tufts University has received federal funding to develop chemical robots that will be able to squeeze into spaces as tiny as 1 centimeter, then morph into something 10 times larger, and ultimately biodegrade. The "chembots" could access urban environments, tunnels, caves and debris fields, and carry out other risky operations in complex environments.
Computer scientist turns his face into a remote control
New work at nexus of facial expression recognition research and automated tutoring
A computer science Ph.D. student can turn his face into a remote control that speeds and slows video playback. The proof-of-concept demonstration is part of a larger project to use automated facial expression recognition to make robots more effective teachers.
The robot that climbs in the pipe
Industrial pipe systems are inaccessible and narrow. The pipes can be vertical and have junctions. Just as challenging, leakage points in the water system must be located, the condition of oil and gas pipelines must be checked and ventilation systems need to be cleaned.