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Sunday, October 01, 2017

Swarming Robotics

More Swarms.  Now how do we get the cooperation right?  With centralized control.

Introducing a New Robotic Class With Abilities Out-Performing Existing Machines or Even Biological Organisms   CORDIS News

The European Union-funded E-SWARM project has yielded the first self-assembling multi-robot system that exhibits sensorimotor coordination equivalent to that seen in monolithic robots. The E-SWARM researchers say their system can adjust its organization, autonomously cohering into shapes and sizes based on the task or environment. The project makes use of units linked via a mergeable nervous system (MNS), which includes a centralized decision-making unit called the "brain unit." The robots self-reconfigure by absorbing units of different capabilities into their gestalt body, forming larger clusters with a single centralized controller. The MNS robots also can divide into separate bodies with independent brain units, and self-repair by eliminating or replacing malfunctioning body parts, including a malfunctioning brain unit. The researchers note the system is designed to be scalable, both in terms of computational resources for robotic control and response time to stimuli. The team says MNS robots likely will be designed to adapt to changing task requirements. .... " 

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