The European Union is developing and funding a project, the Symbrion program, to develop a prototype team of shape-changing, self-organizing mini robots that work as a team. These robots will be used in places such as disasters, like earthquakes, sent into collapsed buildings to search or lift rubble off of survivors. They are refered to as “swarms” of robots because they are an inch square in size, and software has been developed to allow individual robots, to collaborate, using their individual attributes to make the most of their performance.
The results of the Symbrion programme are expected to be seen by 2013.
It is believed that the self-healing robots will be able to dock with each other, share energy, and co-operate to maximise their abilities to achieve different tasks. Researchers from 10 universities are associated with the project. They say that future applications include search and rescue missions, space exploration, and medicine."A swarm could be released into a collapsed building following an earthquake. They could form themselves into teams searching for survivors or to lift rubble off stranded people," the Telegraph quoted Professor Alan Winfield of the University of the West of England, Bristol, as saying.
"Some robots might form a chain allowing rescue workers to communicate with survivors while others assemble themselves into a 'medicine bot' to give first aid. The robots have functionality on their own, but they can also combine together or adapt and change as the situation requires. The individual robots won't change physically, but they will adapt and evolve their functionally," he added. The work will be carried out keeping in mind that the principle remains capable of being applied to both hardware and software, as well as allows groups of robots collaborate without human supervision in accordance with the situation they face.
(google)
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