Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly

Imagine that you could toss an object such as a wrench into a container filled with tiny robots and, within seconds, the robots would "sense" the shape of the wrench and bind to each other to form a replica of the tool. Creating robots that could turn this sci-fi-like scenario into reality is the goal of an MIT team led by Professor Daniela Rus. They call the technology Smart Sand. The project still has a long way to go. The robots the researchers have developed consist of relatively large cubes, each 12 millimeters on a side, but the team hopes to be able to shrink the modules in the future. In the mean time, the group is addressing another challenge: How to convey the shape of an object to lots of modules that have limited computational resources. At this year's IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) , in St Paul, Minn., Kyle Gilpin, one of the r...

Full article: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hard...

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@FabLab_Bruneck » 06 Jun '12, 2pm
RT @ForkRobotics: #MIT is at it again building the tech that will kill us all. This time it's #replicators. [link] Thanks guys!
@ForkRobotics » 06 Jun '12, 1pm
#MIT is at it again building the tech that will kill us all. This time it's #replicators. [link] Thanks guys!
@arenasolutions » 05 Jun '12, 2pm
"Smart sand" - tiny worker bots that can replicate material objects they come in contact with [link] #scifi
@MIT_Sciwrite » 04 Jun '12, 8pm
Erico Guizzo '03: Smart pebble robots duplicate objects on the fly... [link]
@kyleninety » 30 May '12, 12am
Utility fog! [link]
@DebaeAcademico » 29 May '12, 7pm
Estos pequeños robots con forma de cubo de pequeñas dimensiones son capaces de imitar la forma de otros objetos. [link]
@juanlublanco » 29 May '12, 12pm
Pequeños robots que se mueven y copian objetos (simples) solos [link] #hayqueverlo
@RobotCentral » 29 May '12, 4am
The T-1000 mimicked objects by touching them. See V1.0 of its very real shapeshifting technology: [link] (via @AutomatonBlog)
@nwspr » 29 May '12, 2am
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly ...: MIT project aims to create tiny robots that s... [link]
@Mixedmedia » 28 May '12, 11pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly | IEEE Spectrum [link]
@nsashi » 28 May '12, 7pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly: MIT project aims to create tiny robots that self-... [link]
@WWRobots » 28 May '12, 7pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly: Imagine that you could toss an object such as... [link]
@anhn_cs » 28 May '12, 7pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly: Imagine that you could toss an obje... [link] #robotics
@anhn_cs » 28 May '12, 3pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly: MIT project aims to create tiny rob... [link] #ieeeSpectrum
@eepublishers » 28 May '12, 3pm
RT @IEEESpectrum: MIT project: Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly. [link]
@xvdr » 28 May '12, 2pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link] #tech #science
@BotJunkie » 28 May '12, 2pm
On Automaton: Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link] #robotics
@IEEEGreen » 28 May '12, 2pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link] #IEEE #IEEEGreen
@Kitronik » 07 Jun '12, 8am
RT @forkrobotics: #MIT is at it again building the tech that will kill us all. This time its #replicators. [link] Thanks guys!
@dnedev » 29 May '12, 7pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link]
@hannover_messe » 29 May '12, 11am
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link]
@TransBotica » 29 May '12, 10am
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly IEEE ... [link]
@vishyg » 29 May '12, 2am
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link]
@NewTechForensic » 29 May '12, 1am
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link]
@JoshHellin » 29 May '12, 1am
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link]
@FrankAldorf » 28 May '12, 7pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link] @IeeeSpectrum
@robotfanclub » 28 May '12, 4pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link]
@RobotsNews » 28 May '12, 2pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link]
@robots_forever » 28 May '12, 2pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link]
@electrosoftinc » 28 May '12, 2pm
Smart Pebble Robots Will Let You Duplicate Objects on the Fly [link]