Basic HTML Version
“ROBOT PEBBLES” PUT MIND INTOMATTER
So you’ve cracked a pistonway out in horror-movie country? No
problem, as long as you brought your trusty bag of programmable
sand, say researchers Kyle Gilpin and Daniela Rus fromMIT’s Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory. They’ve been hard at work on a systemof ma er that can form a
replica of an object—at the same size or bigger—without needing any additional equipment.
So far, the limits of engineering ma er have prevented the duo from reducing the system’s
individual particles, a.k.a. sand grains, past 1 cubic centimeter (Gilpin and Rus have been calling
the large grains “robot pebbles” in the meantime), but they hope to eventually cut the size down
tomillimeters, allowing for near-perfect replicas. Here’s how they did it.
BY JACQUELINE DETWILER
3
Once the grains knowwhat to replicate,
they transmit that information to another set
of grains in the bag, whichmake connections
until they create a copy of the original object.
When completed, the replica can be removed
from the bag and any extra grains will just fall
off.
Et voilà!
A new piston.
2
When an object is placed in the bag of
smart sand, the grains have to first learn its
shape. This requires algorithms that allow the
grains to determine where they are in the bag,
and where they are in relation to the object.
The sand that surrounds the object “talks”
until it understands the whole shape.
1
Tomake the sand, the researchers needed
tiny computers that could communicate with
and attach to one another. They settled on
blocks containingmicroprocessors with just
2 kilobytes of workingmemory and electro-
permanent magnets, which can turn their
magnetismon and off tomake connections.
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
JULY 2012
•
ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES PROVOST
71
HOW IT’S DONE
INNOVATION BUSINESS GADGETS
2
3
1