SWARM INTELLIGENCE

SWARM INTELLIGENCE –

Bassett Inspiration Series

READ ‘SCIENTIST GETS BUGGED’ Why would robot scientists study insects?

Why would it be useful?

Do you think the programs would be complicated?

HAN WANG M.SC PROJECT

Do you think the algorithm used here was simple or complicated?

What do you think the algorithm for the ants might have been?

So—if the algorithm was ‘walk until you find food, then come back’, what did the end result look like?

EMERGENCE

A very simple instruction had a very different-looking result. This is called

‘emergence’. Read ‘Emergence’.

OPEN A WORD DOCUMENT. HEAD WITH NAME, DATE AND CLASS COLOR, WITH THE

HEADING “SWARM INTELLIGENCE”.

Question 1. Explain why swarm intelligence could be useful to

roboticists.

READ THIS

Warehouse robots get smarter with ant intelligence’

AT HARVARD, SOME SCIENTISTS ARE LOOKING AT BRAINLESS BRISTLEBOTS, AND THEY SEE SOMETHING THAT LOOKS AS THOUGH THEY ARE COOPERATING.

MIT IS WORKING ON SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE INTELLIGENT:

Small Cubes that self-assemble’ Look at the article.

Question 2: Write down three interesting things that you learned

from these two videos.

EVEN SMALLER (THOUGH NOT AS SMALL AS THEY WILL BE)

Programmable self-assembly in a thousand-robot swarm

SWARMBOTS PULLING A CHILD What signal did the swarmbots send? What do you think the algorithm could have been?

SWARMBOTS PULLING A HEAVY OBJECT

What signal did the swarmbots send?

What do you think the algorithm could have been?

JAMES MCLURKIN AT RICE UNIVERSITY WORKS ON

SWARM ROBOTICS

JAMES MCLURKIN DEPLOYS HIS FLEET

SWARM ROBOTICS

QUESTION 3

Write down 3 behaviors these robot use.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF SWARM ROBOT

Nano Quadrotors with artificial swarm intelligence

11 Quadricopters doing something amazing

You notice that the second set of robots are doing different things from each other.

Does this count as swarm computing?

Question 4: How would you define Swarm Intelligence?

If we defined it as ‘simple programming makes it looks as though the swarm has intelligence’, would that make them qualify? Is that an appropriate definition?

Swarm robots that use termite techniques to build.

Let’s look at some Swarm Robots cooperating with an AR drone.

Does our new definition of swarm robotics make this count as swarm robotics?

As interesting as the communication is, it's the applications that really make this video worth watching. Since the ground robots can't see very far, they rely on the quadrotor to scout ahead and estimate the parameters of upcoming obstacles. Then, the quadrotor instructs the swarm on the ground how to team up to best overcome those obstacles. With the hill, for example, the quadrotor can use stereo imagery to compute how steep it is, run an onboard simulation to see how many ground robots will have to team up to make it over, and then give instruction and direction to the robots below. Very clever.

QUESTION 5

Imagine one or two uses for this type of swarm robot. Give details.

Now we will watch

Swarmanoid, the Movie

QUESTION 6

Describe the swarm robots you saw in this movie.

Here is a summary of swarm robotics.

Question 7:

List three of the suggestions for swarm robotics.

SWARM ROBOTICS USED IN REAL LIFE

Read this article about robot boats.

Watch the Robot Boats Rescue Mission.

A modular Flying Swarm

Used to kill jellyfish!

Another flying swarm - SMAVNET

YET ANOTHER KIND OF SWARM

QUESTION 8

Write a PARAGRAPH giving reasons why you think there is, or is not, an exciting future for swarm robotics.