Research Paper

Check out the latest research paper on Claytronics-Modular robotics to its new Extreme. Totally based on IEEE pattern..

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CLAYTRONICS ppt.

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Envisioning the Future

          Backed by the microchip manufacturer Intel, first generation catoms, measuring 4.4 centimetres in diameter and 3.6 centimetres in height have already been created. The goal is to eventually produce catoms that are one or two millimetres in diameter-small enough to produce convincing replicas. It's not just a problem of building tiny robots, but figuring out how to power them, to get them to stick together and to coordinate and control millions or billions of them. These catoms, which are ringed by several electromagnets, are able to move around each other to form a variety of shapes containing rudimentary processors and drawing electricity from a board that they rest upon. So far only four catoms have been operated together. The plan though is to have thousands of them moving around each other to form whatever shape is desired and to change colour, also as required. 

Five years from now, the DPR researchers expect to have working ensembles of catoms that are close to spherical in shape. These catoms still will be large enough that no one will confuse a replica with the real thing (for that, catoms will probably have to shrink to less than a millimetre in diameter). But the catoms will be sufficiently robust that researchers can experiment with a variety of shapes, test hypotheses about ensemble behaviour, and begin to envision where the technology might lead within a decade or two.

While the potential applications of dynamic physical rendering are exciting, the work being done at Intel Research Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University has broader implications. At its core, the research involves learning to design, power, program and control a densely packed set of microprocessors. These are similar to the key challenges facing the computer industry today. As a result, the DPR research is likely to produce new insights and technologies that could influence the future of computing and communications.

If, in 1960, someone had suggested that one day you could buy a million transistors for a penny, the prediction would have seemed outlandish. But today Intel sells transistors for less than a micro cent, thanks to the continuing technology advances predicted by Moore's Law. It's not unreasonable to predict that one day far in the future; it may be possible to buy a million catoms for a penny.

But dynamic physical rendering could become viable long before Moore's Law drives down the cost of a catom to a micro cent. Even if catoms could be produced for a dollar each, some visualization applications might be economically viable. Certain other applications, such as programmable antennas, could be attractive even if a catom sold for tens or hundreds of dollars.

Whatever the cost, building catoms that are one millimetre in diameter-small enough to create convincing replicas-will be a difficult engineering challenge. But given current industry knowledge and the state of the art of silicon technology, it is not outside the realm of possibility. The challenge lies less in developing new technology than in bringing together a number of research areas in which the industry has made tremendous technical progress in the last decade.

Application of Claytronics/DPR

          The potential applications of dynamic physical rendering are limited only by the imagination. Following are a few of the possibilities:

> Medicine: A replica of your physician could appear in your living room and perform an exam. The virtual doctor would precisely mimic the shape, appearance and movements of your "real" doctor, who is performing the actual work from a remote office.

> Disaster relief: Human replicas could serve as stand-ins for medical personnel, firefighters, or disaster relief workers. Objects made of programmable matter could be used to perform hazardous work and could morph into different shapes to serve multiple purposes. A fire hose could become a shovel, a ladder could be transformed into a stretcher.

 

>  Entertainment: A football game, ice skating competition or other sporting event could be replicated in miniature on your coffee table. A movie could be recreated in your living room, and you could insert yourself into the role of one of the actors.

> 3D physical modeling: Physical replicas could replace 3D computer models, which can only be viewed in two dimensions and must be accessed through a keyboard and mouse. Using claytronics, you could reshape or resize a model car or home with your hands, as if you were working with modeling clay. As you manipulated the model directly, aided by embedded software that's similar to the drawing tools found in office software programs, the appropriate computations would be carried out automatically. You would not have to work at a computer at all; you would simply work with the model. Using claytronics, multiple people at different locations could work on the same model. As a person at one location manipulated the model, it would be modified at every location. 

Capabilities of Catoms

While catoms will be simple in design, each will have four capabilities:

Ø  Computation: Researchers believe that catoms could take advantage of existing microprocessor technology. Given that some modern microprocessor cores are now under a square millimetre, they believe that a reasonable amount of computational capacity should fit on the several square millimetres of surface area potentially available in a 2mm-diameter catom.

Ø  Motion: Although they will move, catoms will have no moving parts. This will enable them to form connections much more rapidly than traditional microrobots, and it will make them easier to manufacture in high volume. Catoms will bind to one another and move via electromagnetic or electrostatic forces, depending on the catom size.
              Imagine a catom that is close to spherical in shape, and whose perimeter is covered by small electromagnets. A catom will move itself around by energizing a particular magnet and cooperating with a neighbouring catom to do the same, drawing the pair together. If both catoms are free, they will spin equally about their axes, but if one catom is held rigid by links to its neighbours, the other will swing around the first, rolling across the fixed catom's surface and into a new position. Electrostatic actuation will be required once catom sizes shrink to less than a millimetre or two. The process will be essentially the same, but rather than electromagnets, the perimeter of the catom will be covered with conductive plates. By selectively applying electric charges to the plates, each catom will be able to move relative to its neighbours.

Ø  Power: Catoms must be able to draw power without having to rely on a bulky battery or a wired connection. Under a novel resistor-network design the researchers have developed, only a few catoms must be connected in order for the entire ensemble to draw power. When connected catoms are energized, this triggers active routing algorithms which distribute power throughout the ensemble.

Ø  Communications: Communications is perhaps the biggest challenge that researchers face in designing catoms. An ensemble could contain millions or billions of catoms, and because of the way in which they pack, there could be as many as six axes of interconnection.
            Another unique feature of catom networks is that catoms are homogeneous. Thus, unlike cell phones or other communications devices, the identity of an individual catom is sometimes (but not always) unimportant. An application is more likely to care about routing a message to the catoms comprising a specific physical part of an ensemble (for instance, the catoms comprising a "hand") rather than sending the same message to specific catoms based on their serial numbers. Furthermore, catoms may be in motion periodically, as the shape of the ensemble changes.

Ø  Creating the replica:   At a high level, there are two steps :

·         Capturing a moving, three-dimensional image and

·         rendering it as a physical object.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University also are exploring 3D image capture, in the Virtualized Reality project. They have developed technology that points a set of cameras at an event and enables the viewer to virtually fly around and watch the event from a variety of positions. The DPR researchers believe a similar approach could be used to capture 3D scenes for use in creating physical, moving 3D replicas.

Replicas will be created from Catoms. Catoms can be formed into different shapes, and it can change color, through light-emitting diodes on its surface. Embedded photo cells will enable it to sense light, so that a human replica can "see." Catoms might even simulate the texture of the person or object being replicated. A replica will have computing capabilities, but these will be accessed through touch, voice, or another natural interface rather than a keyboard or mouse. Catoms will be as close to spherical as possible to support multiple packing densities.

SOFTWARE

Distributed Computing in Claytronics

In a domain of research defined by many of the greatest challenges facing computer scientists and roboticists today, perhaps none is greater than the creation of algorithms and programming language to organize the actions of millions of sub-millimetre scale catoms in a claytronics ensemble.

As a consequence, the research scientists and engineers of the Carnegie Mellon-Intel Claytronics Research Program have formulated a very broad-based and in-depth research program to develop a complete structure of software resources for the creation and operation of the densely distributed network of robotic nodes in a claytronic matrix.

A notable characteristic of a claytronic matrix is its huge concentration of computational power within a small space.  For example, an ensemble of catoms with a physical volume of one cubic meter could contain 1 billion catoms.  Computing in parallel, these tiny robots would provide unprecedented computing capacity within a space not much larger than a standard packing container.  This arrangement of computing capacity creates a challenging new programming environment for authors of software.

A representation of a matrix of approximately 20,000 catoms can be seen in the left frame of the illustration at the top of this column. Because of its vast number of individual computing nodes, the matrix invites comparison with the worldwide reservoir of computing resources connected through the Internet, a medium that not only distributes data around the globe but also enables nodes on the network to share work from remote locations.  The physical concentration of millions of computing nodes in the small space of a claytronic ensemble thus suggests for it the metaphor of an Internet that sits on a desk.

2.2.2  An Internet in a Box

Comparison with the Internet, however, does not represent much of the novel complexity of a claytronic ensemble.  For example, a matrix of catoms will not have wires and unique addresses -- which in cyberspace provide fixed paths on which data travels between computers.  Without wires to tether them, the atomized nodes of a claytronic matrix will operate in a state of constant flux. The consequences of computing in a network without wires and addresses for individual nodes are significant and largely unfamiliar to the current operations of network technology.

Languages to program a matrix require a more abbreviated syntax and style of command than the lengthy instructions that widely used network languages such as C++ and Java employ when translating data for computers linked to the Internet.  Such widely used programming languages work in a network environment where paths between computing nodes can be clearly flagged for the transmission of instructions while the computers remain under the control of individual operators and function with a high degree of independence behind their links to the network. 

In contrast to that tightly linked programming environment of multi-functional machines, where C++, Java and similar languages evolved, a claytronic matrix presents a software developer with a highly organized, single-purpose, densely concentrated and physically dynamic network of unwired nodes that create connections by rotating contacts with the closest neighbours.  The architecture of this programming realm requires not only instructions that move packets of data through unstable channels.  Matrix software must also actuate the constant change in the physical locations of the anonymous nodes while they are transferring the data through the network.

For the Nodes, It’s All about Cooperation

In this environment, the processes of each individual catom must be entirely dedicated to the operational goal of the matrix – which is the formation of dynamic, 3-dimensional shapes.  Yet, given the vast number of nodes, the matrix cannot dedicate its global resources to the micro-management of each catom.  Thus, every catom must achieve a state of self-actuation in cooperation with its immediate neighbors, and that modality of local cooperation must radiate through the matrix.

Software language for the matrix must convey concise statements of high-level commands in order to be universally distributed.  For this purpose, it must possess an economy of syntax that is uncommon among software languages.  In place of detailed commands for individual nodes, it must state the conditions toward which the nodes will direct their motion in local groups.  In this way, catoms will organize collective actions that gravitate toward the higher-level goals of the ensemble. 

A Seamless Ensemble of Form and Functionality

By providing a design to focus constructive rearrangements of individual nodes, software for the matrix will motivate local cooperation among groups of catoms.  This protocol reflects a seamless union between form and functionality in the actuation of catoms.  It also underscores the opportunity for high levels of creativity in the design of software for the matrix environment, which manipulates the physical architecture of this robotic medium while directing information through it.

In a hexagonal stacking arrangement, for example, rows of catoms in one layer rest within the slight concavities of catom layers above and below them.  That placement gives each catom direct communication with as many as 12 other catoms.  Such dynamic groupings provide the stage upon which to program catom motion within local areas of the matrix.  Such collective actuation will transform the claytronic matrix into the realistic representations of original objects.

The Research Program

In the Carnegie Mellon-Intel Claytronics Software Lab, researchers address several areas of software development, which are described in this section of the website.

Programming Languages

Researchers in the Claytronics project have also created Meld and LDP.  These new languages for declarative programming provide compact linguistic structures for cooperative management of the motion of millions of modules in a matrix.  The center panel above shows a simulation of Meld in which modules in the matrix have been instructed with a very few lines of highly condensed code to swarm toward a target.

Integrated Debugging

In directing the work of the thousands to millions of individual computing devices in an ensemble, claytronics research also anticipates the inevitability of performance errors and system dysfunctions.  Such an intense computational environment requires a comparably dynamic and self-directed process for identifying and debugging errors in the execution of programs.  One result is a program known as Distributed Watch Points, represented in the snapshot in the right panel below.

Shape Sculpting

The team's extensive work on catom motion, collective actuation and hierarchical motion planning addresses the need for algorithms that convert groups of catoms into primary structures for building dynamic, 3-dimensional representations.   Such structures work in a way that can be compared to the muscles, bones and tissues of organic systems.  In claytronics, this special class of algorithms will enable the matrix to work with templates suitable to the representations it renders.  In this aspect of claytronics development, researchers develop algorithms that will give structural strength and fluid movement to dynamic forms.  Snapshots from the simulation of these studies can be seen in the right-side panel at the top of this column and in the left-side panel below.

Localization

The team’s software researchers are also creating algorithms that enable catoms to localize their positions among thousands to millions of other catoms in an ensemble.  This relational knowledge of individual catoms to the whole matrix is fundamental to the organization and management of catom groups and the formation of cohesive and fluid shapes throughout the matrix.  A pictorial context for examining the dynamics of localization is represented by the snapshot of the elephant simulated in the center panel of images below.

Dynamic Simulation

As a first step in developing software to program a claytronic ensemble, the team created DPR-Simulator, a tool that permits researchers to model, test and visualize the behavior of catoms.  The simulator creates a world in which catoms take on the characteristics that researchers wish to observe.  A Linux-based modeling tool, DPRSim can be downloaded from the website of the Intel Pittsburgh Lab.

The simulated world of DPRSim manifests characteristics that are crucial to understanding the real-time performance of claytronic ensembles.  Most important, the activities of catoms in the simulator are governed by laws of the physical universe.  Thus simulated catoms reflect the natural effects of gravity, electrical and magnetic forces and other phenomena that will determine the behavior of these devices in reality.  DPRSim also provides a visual display that allows researchers to observe the behavior of groups of catoms.  In this context, DPRSim allows researchers to model conditions under which they wish to test actions of catoms.  At the top and bottom of this column, images present snapshots from simulations of programs generated through DPRSim.  Videos from simulations can be seen on other pages of this site