Having already broken new ground in robotics with the development, last year, of a class of “soft”, silicone-based robots based on creatures like squid and octopi, Harvard scientists are now working to create systems that would allow the robots to camouflage themselves, or stand out in their environment.

As described in a paper published August 16 in Science, a team of researchers led by George M. Whitesides, the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, has developed a “dynamic coloration” system for soft robots that might one day have applications ranging from helping doctors plan complex surgeries to acting as a visual marker to help search crews following a disaster.

In this video, Stephen Morin, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Chemistry and Chemical Biology and first author of the paper, discusses the research and demonstrates how the system works.

Links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC1WFU4G-WU

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Robots by the dozen are prohibitively expensive, so actually testing how large swarms would work together is often limited to computer simulations. That’s where Harvard’s Kilobots are beginning to bear fruit – at a cost of US$14 each in batches of a thousand, they’re a tenth the cost of their cheapest competitor. At such bargain-basement prices, Michael Rubenstein, Christian Ahler, and Radhika Nagpal at the Self-Organizing Systems Research Group have begun to build their own little robot army.

A single Kilobot communicates with its neighbors by pulsing its infrared LED, which shines and reflects off the floor beneath it. Any Kilobot within 10 cm will pick up the message with an infrared photodiode receiver. They move around on their stilt-like legs by simply vibrating.

Back in 2011 when the project first came to our attention, we saw how 29 Kilobots could demonstrate some interesting collective behaviors. In one experiment, the robots acted like ants foraging for food, and in another they played follow-the-leader, effectively forming a jittery little conga line.

Now the group has published some videos where up to 100 Kilobots intermingle, a feat that would have been reserved for computer simulations just a few years ago. In the first video, the Kilobots have been programmed to seek out light using a visible light sensor on each robot.

Videos

Swarm Robotics – Collective transport with 100 Kilobots

External Links

http://www.gizmag.com/one-hundred-harvard-kilobot-swarm/25898/

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http://youtu.be/VxSs1kGZQqc

https://micro.seas.harvard.edu/publications.html (Publications Harward)

Check the articke below for detailed information about the video.

 https://micro.seas.harvard.edu/papers/JMM11_Sreetharan_cover.pdf

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