Tiny Robots Grow Bio-inspired Shapes
- Magazine Article
- TBMG-33716
- English
Hundreds of small robots can work in a team to create biology-inspired shapes without an underlying master plan, purely based on local communication and movement. To achieve this, the biological principles of self-organization were introduced to swarm robotics. The only information installed in the coin-sized robots was basic rules on how to interact with neighbors. The robots in the swarm were specifically programmed to act similarly to cells in a tissue. Those genetic rules mimic the system responsible for patterns seen in nature, like the arrangement of fingers on a hand or the spots on a leopard. The robots rely on infrared messaging to communicate with neighbors within a 10-centimeter range. This makes the robots similar to biological cells, as they can only directly communicate with other cells physically close to them.