Distribution & Collectives Archive

  • From Complex Living Systems to Smarter Computers

    From Complex Living Systems to Smarter Computers

    Posted on March 26, 2013 |
    The European collaborative research Project “SWAM-ORGAN” tries to understand complex living systems such as cells making an organ, or the spatially-controlled growing of a plant, and to apply these principles to technological systems, in particular more intelligent and adaptable robot swarms. The Project, with a...

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  • Odor-Sniffing Robot Swarms

    Odor-Sniffing Robot Swarms

    Posted on January 29, 2013 |
    Aircraft carrier crews are likely to get rather pungent as they perform the hard tasks of assembling, loading and hauling the massive weaponry that gives the U.S. Navy its edge. To make their lives easier, the Navy’s exploring the idea of developing a “robotic semiautonomous...

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  • The Internet of Cars

    The Internet of Cars

    Posted on January 21, 2013 |
    What if driving skills could be computed as a score that warned us of bad drivers nearby – real time, on the road – also enabling navigation systems to offer safer alternative routes? Imagine if we could get rid of traffic jams and accidents altogether. Or...

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  • Awareness Challenges

    Distribution/Collectives Challenges

    Posted on January 1, 2013 |
    1. Letting different systems interoperate and collaborate. Guillame Dugue 2. How to improve the communication between local and global systems in swarm robotics? Matthias Holzl 3. To develop ubiquitous platforms. Stefan Dulman 4. Collective self-awareness from not self-aware components. Peter Lewis 5. How to make...

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  • AUVs surveying the ocean

    AUVs surveying the ocean

    Posted on December 12, 2012 |
    As Sandy thundered past, this brave robot sat in the ocean about 100 miles (160km) off the coast of New Jersey, transmitting data in real time about the extreme weather at the storm’s heart. The robot combines an upper float the size of a surfboard...

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  • Tiny Swarming Robots Play Beethoven

    Tiny Swarming Robots Play Beethoven

    Posted on November 27, 2012 |
    Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have taught a fleet of tiny robots to play Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” on a virtual keyboard. The Khepera bots, as they are called, look more like bugs than bots. They’re just 5.5 centimeters across, they’re packed with sensors...

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  • First 3D map of East Antarctica

    First 3D map of East Antarctica

    Posted on October 22, 2012 |
    Researchers, on a two-month voyage to the region on the Australian Antarctic Division’s icebreaker Aurora Australis, are using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). This free-swimming robotic submarine is measuring the topography of the underside of the sea ice to learn more about its thickness and...

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  • Underwater robots to ‘repair’ Scotland’s coral reefs

    Underwater robots to ‘repair’ Scotland’s coral reefs

    Posted on August 30, 2012 |
    Dubbed “coralbots”, they are being designed to work in groups, in a similar manner to bees and ants. The team is still “training” the software that will control the bots to “recognise” corals and distinguish them from other sea objects. via Underwater robots to ‘repair’...

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  • Autonomous Robots for Minesweeping

    Autonomous Robots for Minesweeping

    Posted on July 18, 2012 |
    For years, the U.S. Navy has employed human divers, equipped with sonar cameras, to search for underwater mines attached to ship hulls. The Navy has also trained dolphins and sea lions to search for bombs on and around vessels. While animals can cover a large...

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  • Google’s artificial “brain”

    Google’s artificial “brain”

    Posted on June 28, 2012 |
    When computer scientists at Google’s mysterious X lab built a neural network of 16,000 computer processors with one billion connections and let it browse YouTube, it did what many web users might do — it began to look for cats. The “brain” simulation was exposed...

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