The approach could be put to use in the future in service of astronauts making the journey to Mars
Months of lab work has led to this chilly day – by Florida standards – with four small, wheeled robots moving around the parking lot outside the Launch Control Center while their leader, Kurt Leucht, keeps electronic tabs on them using a laptop. He carries the laptop around as he tracks each of the four machines, occasionally tapping one off an obstacle or looking at the vehicle’s line of sight to figure out what its sensors are seeing.
Together, the robots are known as the “Swarmies” and it’s not their hardware that makes them noteworthy, but rather the coding each carries in its silicon brain that make them search the same way ants do. Each of the robots has its own camera and a set of hazard-avoidance sensors. They are rolling around looking for barcode sheets and leaving digital trails to tell the others when a whole lot of bar codes are found in one place.
“We’re trying to prove that there’s more efficient ways of searching than some other more common ways,” Leucht said. “It works really well for ants and we think it could work just as well for robots.”
Leucht isn’t controlling the robots in the way a radio-control hobbyist does – he’s not doing their thinking for them. Instead, he’s letting the software he and his team have been working on for months do the work of operating each robot independently. Besides, that’s the way mechanical creatures like this would have to operate on Mars if they are to be effective resource gatherers.
Working with computer engineer Caylyn Shelton at Kennedy and a research team at the University of New Mexico Biological Computation Lab, Leucht is using this parking lot test and dozens more just like it to try to see whether a search method based on foraging behaviors is more effective and productive than a conventional approach of scouring every square inch of an area or a purely random search. It is the same approach used by ants for eons to find and collect food and material.
The approach could be put to use in the future in service of astronauts making the journey to Mars.
One idea among many is to dispatch a corps of small robots capable of searching the Red Planet for water-ice and then digging it up for processing into breathing air and rocket fuel. The robots – purpose-built, flightworthy machines loaded with software like the coding Leucht is working on – would arrive at Mars months or years ahead of astronauts and use the lead-time to build up a storehouse of resources that would be waiting for the explorers from earth.
With each robot being small and weighing less than 10 pounds, a large fleet of searcher/gatherer machines could be sent into space on a single launch. With 100 robots tooling around on the surface, it also wouldn’t matter so much if several broke down because there would be plenty more to do the work.
Read more: Swarmies Shuffle Through Field Tests
The Latest on: Swarming Robots
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Swarming Robots” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Swarming Robots
- KS3/4 Computing: How robots can work together in a swarmon May 16, 2024 at 11:34 am
Paul Beardsley from Disney Research Zurich explains how the 50 pixelbot robots work together in a swarm to create animations.
- New compound eye design could provide inexpensive way to give robots insect-like visionon May 16, 2024 at 7:20 am
A team of engineers and roboticists at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has developed an electronic compound eye design to give robots the ability to swarm efficiently and inexpensively.
- Cameras inspired by insect eyes could give robots a wider viewon May 15, 2024 at 11:00 am
Artificial compound eyes made without the need for expensive and precise lenses could provide cheap visual sensors for robots and driverless cars ...
- Swarm Robotics Market To Hit USD 7.1 Billion By 2031 Driven By Surge In Automation And Efficiency Across Industrieson May 12, 2024 at 1:27 am
The market expands as industries recognize the multifaceted benefits of swarm robotics. For instance, in precision agriculture, swarms can optimize resource utilization, minimize waste, and maximize ...
- Swarm Robotics Market May See Potential Upside in Years to Comeon May 9, 2024 at 2:06 pm
The Global Swarm Robotics Market is valued at approximately USD 635 million in 2022 and is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR of over 25% from 2023 to 2030. Swarm robotics, inspired by the collective ...
- Magnetic microrobot swarms clean water of microplastics and bacteriaon May 8, 2024 at 6:21 am
Researchers develop swarms of microrobots to combat microplastics and bacteria in water, aiming its restore natural balance.
- Swarm of tiny snail robots stick together to form new structureson May 8, 2024 at 6:15 am
The bots use magnets instead of slime. By Andrew Paul | Published May 8, 2024 9:15 AM EDT Researchers have built a swarm of miniature, snail-inspired robots, minus all the mucus. Instead, a ...
- Microrobots Swarm the Seas, Capturing Microplastics and Bacteria [Video]on May 8, 2024 at 5:00 am
Researchers have developed microrobots capable of removing microplastics and bacteria from water, addressing the dual threat of pollution and disease spread in aquatic environments. When old food ...
- Swarms of miniature robots clean up microplastics and microbes, simultaneously (video)on May 7, 2024 at 5:00 pm
When old food packaging, discarded children’s toys and other mismanaged plastic waste break down into microplastics, they become even harder to clean up from oceans and waterways. These tiny bits of ...
- Swarm of Swiss robots could take part in future space missionson May 7, 2024 at 12:01 am
Researchers in Zurich propose using a swarm of small robots instead of a heavy rover for future space missions.
via Bing News