This Reminds Me Of Big Hero 6 - Blog Posts

Teaming with Bots!

‪NSF-funded‬ Northwestern University roboticist Mike Rubenstein is helping NSF’s Science360 Radio pay homage to the National Robotics Initiative this week. We have his Big Picture Science interview about teeny tiny swarming robots called kilobots: 1.usa.gov/1r5QTz9

Self-assembly enables nature to build complex forms, from multicellular organisms to complex animal structures such as flocks of birds, through the interaction of vast numbers of limited and unreliable individuals. Creating this ability in engineered systems poses challenges in the design of both algorithms and physical systems that can operate at such scales. This work demonstrates programmable self-assembly of complex two-dimensional shapes with a thousand-robot swarm. Photo Credit: Michael Rubenstein, Harvard University