THE COMING OF THE MODULAR SUPERBOTS
This is some cool techno-foreshadowing that will warm the hearts of geeks, nerds and sci-fi aficianados everywhere. ” Superbots” – robotic modules demonstrating emergent behavior. To quote Dr. Von:
“I just found it fascinating that these concepts are now being introduced and perfected in robotics, where a USC group is demonstrating that robotic modules can act independently, but when combined can communicate with each other, adapt, and perform multiple functions”
Von has posted and linked to a set of videos like this one.
Now imagine this concept married to nanotechnology where each superbot is at the mirco- or nano- level, perhaps in a buckeyball design, and you have a collective superbot that could dynamically adapt to virtually any environment.
Fabius Maximus:
March 4th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
“robotic modules can act independently, but when combined can communicate with each other, adapt, and perform multiple functions”
Why so excited, as if this is a new idea?
Everyone watching Saturday morning TV in the 1980’s learned this from watching Voltron — Defender of the Universe.
I note with dismay that not only did they not cite Voltron as the source of this insight, but USC failed to include clips from ANY Voltron cartoons.
Anonymous:
March 4th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Can you plese give me one example of emergent behavior shown by these devices — i.e. something quite unpredicted?
Regards,
Ian
mark:
March 6th, 2007 at 3:13 am
Hi Ian
Off the top of my head I hazard that the modules are communicating and they are affecting their environment, however marginally. But since you are looking for something a whole lot more impressive, let me inquire of someone who is actually educated for such things.
Fabius,
I’m afraid Voltron and his awesome powers are quite beyond my ken.
Isaac:
March 7th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Mark – While the robots are super cool and I enjoyed watching all the videos, I didn’t see anything ’emergent’… at least not in a philosophical sense. I’m staunchly anti-AI (as a possibility, even), but hopefully optimistic for robust CI. Check Wikipedia’s ‘Hubert Dreyfus’ article. He was, perhaps, the most personally-influential professor I ever had. Anyway, suffice it to say that the use of the words ’emergent’ and ‘robot’ in the same piece causes me some trepidation… I do, however, see amazing potential for ‘superbots’ in un-manned aerial and ground systems. Good link.
Fabius, Allura, Blue Lion pilot and Princess of Arus (?), rocked my little-kid world! Thanks for the trip down memory lane.