Scientists at the Harvard University have developed a swarm of more than 1,000 tiny robots, which work together without any control from a central intelligence. The scientists have also released a video that shows how the robots work like a mechanical flash mob and create various shapes.
The developers have dubbed the robots as Kilobots. The scientists say that they have to give a command to the robots simultaneously using infrared light and then the Kilobots get into action. The video shows that the robots work together and form the shape of a wrench, a five-point star and the letter K.
Scientists reveal that they were inspired by natural team players such as termites, bees, ants, fish, birds and more, who perform complex tasks in groups without any single individual being in-charge. The scientists explain that the Kilobots can also perform tasks without being guided by central intelligence.
"Biological collectives involve enormous numbers of cooperating entities-whether you think of cells or insects or animals-that together accomplish a single task that is a magnitude beyond the scale of any individual," says Michael Rubenstein, lead author of the study and a research associate at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute.
Rubenstein and his team suggest that they have developed a program, which provides high intelligence to the Kilobots. The high intelligence of the robots allows them to work in groups that are composed of hundreds of bots and complete a task without any momentary instructions.
The scientists say that the Kilobots are nearly the size of a penny and are programmed to understand three things: "following the edge of a group, tracking a distance from the origin, and maintaining a sense of relative location."
The robots are also capable of correcting any mistakes. If a Kilobot causes an error, the others cooperate and work together to fix the problem.
The creators of the tiny robots say that the concept and technology behind Kilobots can be used in the future for many real life tasks such as cleaning of oil spills, military surveillance and more.
The scientists say that the creation of Kilobots is significant as it is a step closer to the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in a collective manner. However, further work is needed in the field before they can be used in reality.
Check out the swarm of tiny robots in action.
