WEBVTT - Self-Reconfiguring Modular Robots GO! 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota Let's Go Places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:14.200 Forward Thinking, Either in Love and a forrard Thinking, the 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.840 podcast that looks at the future and says, they say, 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.919 we are what we are, but we don't have to be. 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.480 I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren Folk, and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:27.680 So we've got a fun topic lined up today. Yeah, 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:30.440 So it's it's one that I really was thinking about 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.960 recently because I saw this awesome movie, Big Hero six. 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.199 I haven't seen it yet, so really good. The trailer 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:39.800 was really cute. I haven't seen it either, but Jonathan 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:42.320 keeps talking about it, so I think we need to 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.479 go see it. So before I get into what today's 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:47.920 topic is, specifically, the thing I wanted to say about 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:50.199 Big Hero six is the movie opens. It's set in 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:54.240 me an alternate future really, because you have the main 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.120 city is San Francikio, so it's a kind of a 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.920 melding of San Francisco in Tokyo and are just world design. 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:03.880 But the thing that really impressed me early on is 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.160 that there's all this kind of science fiction ee sort 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.200 of stuff going on, but a lot of it, at 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.039 least has its basis in science. Fact, a lot of 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.640 it is is based on you know, take take sort 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.200 of the cutting edge stuff that's going on in labs 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.880 right now, projected out several years, and assume that the 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.039 research you know plays out and that everything is fruitful, 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:27.080 and what do you get? And a lot of the 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.880 technology you see, at least in the early part of 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.040 the movie seems to go along with that. And I 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:35.720 was just really impressed. I mean, everything from soft robotics 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.560 to what we're gonna talk about today, which is self 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:44.319 reconfiguring modular robots or as you also noted that they 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:46.720 can be called in your script for this video episode, 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:51.840 autonomous kinematic machines of variable morphology rolls off the tongue. 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.480 So what on earth is that talking about? Well, I 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:59.480 think we should start with the idea of the variable morphology. Okay, 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.480 So something that changes shape, right more fall as he 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.880 refers to like structure or form or shape as it 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.560 would in biology. So so what we're talking about is 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.520 a transformer, that's right, Yeah, it's a shape shifting robot. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.760 And why is a transformer? Great, well, a transformer is 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:23.680 it's a robot in the SUI, A transformer is great 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:25.880 unless you're talking about one of the recent movies, a 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.880 cartooning transformer or a real transformer. Either one of those 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.160 would be great. But it's great because it can do 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.640 two jobs, whereas most robots can only do one. So 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.480 a regular robot might be an autonomous car and it 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.720 can drive down the highway distributing palettes of Captain Crunch. 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:48.359 Excuse me, Captain Crunch the hyphens. I would really hope 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.600 you'd be an admiral by now. But then, of course, 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:56.040 after that autonomous truck delivers them, it can't get into 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.799 big wrestling matches with other robots. Now, you might make 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.320 a robot that can get into wrestling matches with other 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:03.919 robots and stabbed them through the side of a highway 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.240 with a giant sword. But that robot can't be a 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:12.160 truck unless it's a transformer, right where it can be 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.720 both you can. But but wait, let me do you 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.400 one better. What's better than a transformer that can assume 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.920 two morphs? A robot that can assume even more morphs? 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.359 What about a robot that can assume an infinite number 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.880 of morphs? So you're saying, like a robot that is 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.519 capable of assuming any shape that you need at any 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:36.440 given time to perform any given task. Bingo. Well that 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:40.360 is something that is is in Big Hero six, the 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:46.360 the hero whose name is Hero actually designs self self 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:51.720 self reconfiguring modular robots. He designs a tiny robotic unit that, 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:55.800 when it connects to others of its kind, make larger shapes. 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:58.720 And you might think, well, that's pure science fiction, but 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.240 it's not. And we want to kind of go into 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.520 more detail about why such a thing would be a 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.240 desirable object in the first place. And you you really 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:11.000 hit on it, Joe, the idea that robots today tend 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:15.000 to be really good at specific things and crappy at 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:19.160 everything else. Yeah, they have one job. You had one, Joba, 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.040 I asked you to paint a masterful painting. You had 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:28.040 one job, and all you did was clean the floor. Yeah, 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.760 that's exactly right. You know, we do. We design robots 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:34.960 to perform specific tasks, and so the form follows the function. Yeah. 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:37.520 In fact, there almost seems to be a direct proportional 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:42.159 correlation where the more diverse a robots skill set gets, 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.760 the worse it gets at all of those jobs. Instead 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:50.120 of can be really good at one or very mediocre 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.960 at several times. This is like that TV trip about 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.159 about ninja and that if you have one ninja, it's great, 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.159 and if you have a hundred ninja, they have about 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.640 the same capacity. Is that one ninja would have just 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:03.839 spread out amongst all of them, right right, That's why 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:08.560 the tick can just breathe right through a horde of ninja. Yeah. Yeah, 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.440 besides the fact that he's also ni invulnerable. Um yeah, 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.440 they the this is that's exactly right. Yeah. That you 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:16.600 build a robot that you want to be able to 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.240 do lots of things. Usually it can do a few 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.719 things and not so great. And this is you know, 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:26.039 anyone who's who's played with any of the robots that 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.680 are social bots that are meant to do like these things, 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.599 like mostly in the toy department, you know, they're amusing, 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.800 but they're not exactly the best at anything that they're 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.200 trying to do, Okay, And there's solid design reasons for 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.719 creating robots that are that that only have one job, right, 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:47.000 I mean, creating robots is kind of expensive and time consuming, 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.520 and so if you're trying to build lots of different 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.120 functionality into them, that's that's a lot more expensive and 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.800 a lot more time consuming if you if you're narrowing 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.080 down what you wanted to do, right, if you if 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.719 you pinpoint that focus, then you say, here's what the 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:05.599 robot has to be able to do. Anything that does 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.680 not directly contribute to this task, we can eliminate. That 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:13.560 means that you can, you know, really pinpoint that focus, 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.560 really make sure that that design is as efficient as 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:21.400 possible at doing that task. But let's imagine a scenario. Okay, 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.120 let's say that you live in a house by yourself, 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.760 and you work long hours, and you need a robot 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:33.680 to help you clean the house. Beyond beyond something like 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:35.760 a roomba that's just going to sweep the floor. Sure, 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.320 a roomba might be really good at sucking up dust 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.480 off the floor, that's its one job. But a roomba, 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:45.640 of course, cannot clean your gutters, and it can't well 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:47.280 I don't know, I was gonna say, it can't soap 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:49.240 and mop the floor. But they might make rumas that 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:51.320 can do that. They do. They do make mopping room 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.840 bas but they're not usually also sweeping room bas So 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:56.880 it's in other words, you have you have two different 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.160 robots that have similar but different jobs. Okay, and one 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.159 about another one thing. Yeah, another one for washing windows, 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:05.600 and another one for doing your dishes. And there there 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.080 have been lots of robots that do these things, but 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.720 again they're all individual like their uni taskers, as Alton 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:13.920 Brown would call them. So are you going to fill 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.520 your house up with thirty five different kinds of robots? 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.840 Well maybe if you can afford it and you don't 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.760 mind occasionally getting sharp metal jabbed into you. Well, also, 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.320 you just you started this up by saying you live alone. 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.000 I mean that maybe they'll make you a little less 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.920 lonely to have like thirty five robot friends doing all 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.160 your work for you. That would make me more lonely, 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.920 would it? Yeah? I just named them. I assume if 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.160 you live some with somebody else, you can bully them 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.280 into doing all the houses. Is that how it works 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:46.760 in your household? Kidding? My wife is wonderful. Yeah, I 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.720 do the same thing, Joe. Uh yeah, so this is 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:52.920 this is exactly the point you're making, though, is is 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.600 very much on target right. The idea that it would 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:00.920 be very beneficial to have a mod geiller robot, a 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.960 robot made up of smaller robots, smaller pieces that could 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.000 form any given shape to perform any task as best 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:13.160 as it possibly could, rather than have a veritable army 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.480 of robots. I mean, even if you were to say, well, 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:18.640 let's imagine that I've gotten enough space for all those 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.600 robots and I would want them all. Just the power 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.400 bill alone to keep them all charged would be ridiculous. 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.120 So what if you could have this group of tiny 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:33.000 robots that joined together to form a much larger moving 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:37.280 object that can do pretty much anything you wanted to do? Right, So, 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.520 it could form into a small disc and hoover along 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:42.480 the floor like the room but does. Or maybe it 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.200 could make itself tall, rearrange itself into a long stick 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.320 with arms to clean the windows, or to reach into 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.560 the sink to clean the dishes. Or it could even 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.120 climb over upon itself up the wall, up the side 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:57.920 of your house to reach the roof and clean out 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.480 your gutters. Yeah, yeah, all of these are I mean, 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:02.680 it sounds kind of science fiction e but these are 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:06.120 all real things that, uh that engineers are looking into. 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:10.400 Maybe not necessarily those use cases, but but essentially the 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.720 idea of a robot that can change its shape in 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.040 order to do different things. Whether that's just to get 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:21.160 across a landscape or to actually perform a specific task. Right, Well, 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:23.760 I think we should talk about some of the existing 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:28.880 models of reconfiguring or self reconfiguring modular robots that exist 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:32.120 out there today, right because obviously we don't have anything 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:36.479 like what we just described, this perfect self reconfiguring robot 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.800 in your house, but we we we've basically got a 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.040 few steps in that direction that are very encouraging. Yeah, 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.480 we've got to that we're specifically going to talk about, 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.680 one of which is a reconfiguring robot, one which doesn't 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.440 necessarily reconfigure, like it doesn't form a larger robot, but 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.960 it can act with a swarm intelligence, which it will 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.640 be important in modular robotics. So we're gonna talk about those. 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:01.760 But I should point out there are lots of different 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:03.880 types of modular robots out there. Some of them are 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.000 not self reconfiguring. Some of them are simply you get 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:10.520 all the different components and you put them together. Yeah 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:12.040 you can. You can sit there and make you know. 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.880 There are a lot of ones that teach children the 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.000 basics of robotics, and they have different units that do 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.520 different things, and the way you put them together determines 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.880 their function. Uh, these are modular, but they don't self reconfigure. 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:28.960 They don't they don't manage to put themselves into whatever shape. 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.199 You are the one responsible for doing it. So we're 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.160 not really going to talk about those. Okay, Well let's 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.720 look at M I T S M blocks. Yes, they 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:41.560 are momentum driven magnetic modular robots. That's how the commercial 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:44.000 would go. You know, I imagine the guy who did 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.280 the micro machines ads doing it. Uh no, no, I know. 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:51.080 How the commercial would go would be like, let M 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:57.959 into your life. The M block, you know, M I 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.319 T you can just send the checks are away. So 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.319 they're cubes that they you would think because they're called blocks, 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:11.719 Joe's already regretting absolutely going to stay in. Okay, So 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:16.400 the M blocks are these blocks that have magnetic corners, right, 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:21.160 so each corner has a beveled magnet in it, which 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:22.960 is pretty cool. I'll talk a little bit more about 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.920 that in a second. They also contain a rotating flywheel 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.000 that can move up to twenty thousand revolutions per minute. 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.680 It's pretty fast, and so, uh, they don't necessarily speed 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.120 turn at full speed every time, but depending on what 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.400 you need the cube to do you might have it 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.280 speeding spinning that quickly, and then what you do is 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:46.720 you apply a break. Now, the laws of momentum state 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:48.800 that that energy has to go somewhere. It gets transferred 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.480 to the cube, and this makes the cube move. Okay, 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:53.800 so what does this actually look like when we're watching 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.360 these cubes move around on each other? Have you ever 0:11:56.440 --> 0:12:00.600 seen a ghost movie where objects seem to be moving 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:05.760 on their own accord with nothing obviously moving them forward. Yeah, 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:07.679 that's kind of what it looks like. It looks like 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:09.920 the blocks are possessed, kind of like kind of like 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.880 the toaster jumping and Ghostbusters too. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:15.719 I don't know if you already said this or not, 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.760 but they don't have external moving parts. No, it's all 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.800 it's all kept inside. The flywheel is actually contained within 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.240 the cube, right, So the momentum can move one cube 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.440 onto another cube and reposition it around the outside of 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:32.679 that cube without attaching and reattaching via clamps or hooks 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:36.760 or anything like that. But it's it's attachment through those magnets, right. Yeah, 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.720 And so if you imagine one it's just one cube 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.640 moving around another. But if you add a third, you 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.240 could have two cubes moving around on each other, and 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.679 then the fourth or fifth, and eventually you can end 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.480 up with a large mass of moving modules that can 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.719 assume shapes, especially if they're in communication with each other. 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.680 And you can also include modules that don't necessarily have 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.960 the flywheel inside them. They might have some other UH 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.560 specific sensor or camera in them. Uh. The m I 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:08.240 T Group has talked about the possibility of that as well, 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:10.880 in which case the ones that have the flywheel would 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.120 be responsible for moving the other ones, which they can 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.200 do because that flywheel spinning so quickly. Um, these things 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.559 can actually jump, so they don't just like the the 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.440 videos I've watched show the cubes. I guess rolling is 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:25.760 the best way of putting it in order to move 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:28.000 across the floor, but they can even Let's say you've 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:32.120 got two cubes stacked already vertically and you have a 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.000 third cube roll up. It can actually spin and break 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.120 in such a way to jump up and land on 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:41.200 top of those two cubes, which is kind of spooky 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:43.679 looking when you watch it the first time. They also, 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:45.800 of course are making pretty loud noises because it's a 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.920 flywheel spinning, and then breaking, so it's it's not silent, 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.840 it's it's loud and spooky, so but it's pretty cool. 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.439 And and those those magnets that are in those beveled 0:13:56.440 --> 0:14:00.080 points in the corners, they rotate. And the reason by 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.959 the magnets rotate is so that you can always get 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.840 a north south connection. Remember, you know, the opposite poles 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.840 attract and similar poles repel, and you want to be 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.760 able to make sure that when one block approaches another block, 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:15.319 it's able to actually latch on properly. So the magnets 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.880 in those individual points will naturally rotate so it will 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.040 be a north south connection so that any two cubes 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.040 from any two sides can attach exactly. And if you 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.160 get two poles that are the same, then one of 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.520 them will end up rotating. Everything will be fine. So 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:34.280 there's literally no wrong way to put them together. Neat. Yeah. Yeah. 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:36.560 These also remind me of another project out of m 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.640 I T when we've talked a little bit about before, previously, 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:44.720 before previously, which is the common way to really over 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.960 emphasize the point um. They're the m I T S 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:53.480 reconfiguring robots from their self assembly lab um while researching 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.520 what's called forty printing. Um. That's three D printing of 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.320 materials that can then move and change with with minimal 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.000 stimul lists or instruction from the outside. Uh. The kids 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.880 of the Self Assembly Lab created some macro scale robots 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:09.800 to help demonstrate the usefulness and honestly the coolness of 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:14.480 this changeability of of structure and so so these are 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:20.920 these reconfiguring robots are programmable folding chains constructed of of nodes, 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.960 each of which is hardwired to one or more neighboring nodes. 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:27.120 So if you give one note an instruction, it will 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.400 pass information on how to move down through the chain 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.800 until the programmers desired shape is is complete with with 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.840 relatively minimal input from from that programmer. Right. If you 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:40.800 do not remember us talking about it, or or if 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.360 you want to refresh yourself, you can learn more about 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:47.840 these and other self assembly techniques in our video and podcast, 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:52.440 both of which published August. That's like over a year ago. Guys, 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.920 we've been doing this a minute. Um. The episodes are 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.280 called the video is forty Printing is the Future of Design, 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.480 and the pod cast episode is forty Printing is One 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:08.280 D Better. I must have titled that one, actually, I 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.480 think I came up with that line. Strangely enough, Yeah, 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.440 very it's a very Jonathan kind of joke. So the 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.960 other one we wanted to talk about was Harvard's kill abots. Now, 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.560 this is the one that is not modular robot but 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.160 they do demonstrate swarm behavior, which again is going to 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:27.840 be really important if you're talking about ultimately, if your 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.040 if your goal is to create a robot, a large 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.080 robot made up of smaller robots, then you have to 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.360 build in some form of intelligence for each of those 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:41.120 smaller robots to know quote unquote its place and it's 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.320 uh and it's function right. And so there are some 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:47.120 similar concepts going on between these two uh, these two 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:51.160 ideas swarm robotics and the modular robotics. So with a 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:55.200 self reconfiguring modular robout, we're generally imagining something that's connected 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.160 to itself. It's got pieces that may all be the 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:01.920 same kind of peace moving on one another to reshape itself. 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.679 With swarm robotics, you've still got lots of pieces working together, 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.800 but they're sort of moving on mass and they might 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.639 not be building a shape, right, they might they often 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:17.240 aren't physically connected together at all, right, they're all individually 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.879 free to move. If if somehow one was to break 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.920 free of its programming, it can make a break for it. Uh, 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.160 it's not. It's not chained physically in any way. So 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.320 whereas the ones from M I T were magnetic and 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:32.320 linked together, and we know of a lot of others 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.760 that have physical connections of some sort, either they have 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:38.960 connectors that snap in or they have clamps that hold 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.280 onto one another, these do not. These are simply to 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:47.679 allow UH computer scientists to test various algorithms for robotic intelligence, 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.200 for swarm intelligence. UH and a lot of them are 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:54.520 looking into bio mimicry, the idea of of how animals 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.560 and swarms behave in a mass. You know, it's not 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:02.760 it's it's really fascinating stud At any rate. The problem 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:06.320 with these computer algorithms was that for a very long time, 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.240 there wasn't an easy way to test them. Like you 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:11.600 might come up with what you think is a brilliant 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:15.359 algorithm to to inform a swarm of robots how to 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.520 move for any given purpose, and you can test that 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:23.040 through computer simulation to your heart's content, which is not ideal, right, 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.000 I mean, because you're depending upon the fact that the 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.080 computer simulation has to be accurate enough to actually reflect 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:32.479 what a physical object would do. So Harvard scientists came 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.080 up with this idea and professors as well came up 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:40.080 with this idea to create a relatively inexpensive tiny robot 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.920 on which you could test these algorithms by by assembling 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.960 enough of them to do whatever it is you need 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.359 to do. And they look like, well, they're little circles 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.960 like think of about the size of a quarter. But 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.879 they are on long, spiny legs and there's a little motor, 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.960 a vibrating motor on them that depending on how it's 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.760 vibrates the assuming that this is on a level, smooth surface, 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:09.000 the robots will skitter across the ground. Now, their their 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.200 legs aren't moving, right, it's just through this vibration, so 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:14.920 it's not like they're segmented legs. It's not that much 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.760 like an insect. But they do jitter so that they 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:23.320 move in a specific direction. Yeah, well, these things certainly 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:27.159 do that, And there's some great videos online of these 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.639 moving around in various ways. Usually it's a direct overhead shot, 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:32.439 so you just see a little it looks like a 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:36.760 hockey puck, just kind of slowly moving across an area, 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:40.800 so you can even make these yourself if you really 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:42.960 wanted to. I'll tell you more about that in a second. 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:46.000 But the way the way the kilbots form that shape 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:48.440 is all dependent upon the algorithm. Assuming that the algorithm 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.720 was was properly constructed so that the robots know what 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.399 to do quote unquote um, that they are able to 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:59.280 detect one another and move according to whatever the plan was, 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.880 and they communicate through various means like there's uh. The 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:06.919 version I saw, they were specifically using infrared emitters and 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.760 sensors so that they would be able to tell how 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.280 far apart they were from their neighbors to make sure 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.360 they maintained whatever the distance was that the algorithm dictated. 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:18.320 So one of the examples I saw was a follow 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:22.520 the leader um example, where one was designated the leader. 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.280 They had actually put a green sticker on top of 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:26.680 it so it made it easy to follow on the video, 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.399 and then the next kill abot had the instruction to 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:34.959 try and maintain the same distance with the first one. 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.040 The first one's instructions were move wherever you want, but 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:40.680 you can't get too far away from the second one. 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:44.000 The third one's instructions were tried to keep up with 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.000 the second one, but don't get too far away from 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.280 the fourth one, etcetera, etcetera. So the longer the chain is, 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.760 each one essentially has the same instruction maintain as as 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.280 you know, as as a stable a distance as you 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:57.800 can to the one in front of you without getting 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.359 too far away from the one behind you, and it 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:02.199 would follow the leader this way. And it was a 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.800 cute little demonstration. They also had a foraging demonstration where 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:09.840 they had one kilobot designed to look like uh, well, 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:11.600 it just had a red sticker on it. Those designed 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.280 to act as the nest this is home base. And 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.320 they had another kill abot that was pound off maybe 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.159 to three ft away, that had a green sticker that 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:27.040 represented food. So if they wanted to have these robots 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.200 go out and search for So we're teaching robots to 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.600 be cannibals. Well, it's much better than teaching them to 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:38.679 hate humans. I'm not worried about the killers. Things skitter 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:41.560 at me all they want. Yeah, they're only called killer bots. 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:46.280 And how one letter off from kill bots? Yeah, so 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:50.359 uh yeah, and and well, at any rate, so the 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:52.600 way this would work is that the once they got 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.240 the instruction, they used their infrared sensors to look for 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:59.119 the quote unquote food kill and once they found it, 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.399 then they would travel back and forth between the food 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:05.080 one and the next one. Uh. Some would just end 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:09.240 up forming kind of a structure around the nest. Uh. 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:12.040 Once they were unable to find the food, they just 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:14.520 kind of stayed still. They wouldn't continuously move around, they 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:16.560 would only go so far away. And that was a 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:21.120 kind of cool demonstration as well. Now, like I said earlier, 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.200 you can actually get the plans on how to build 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:25.760 one of these yourself, or lots of them, since one 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:28.000