A droid for all seasons
http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0513/droid.html
No job is too unusual for a breed of robots that reinvent
themselves IMAGINE an automaton that can design itself,
assemble itself and even kill itself. No, it's not the
liquid metal robot from Terminator 2--but this droid can
certainly build itself to perform a particular task, melt
itself down and recycle itself, say researchers in
Massachusetts.
The scientists have developed what they call a polymorphic
robot--a machine that can change its shape to suit the job
in hand. Shape-shifting robots could be used as planetary
explorers, or for search-and-rescue missions, changing
their shape to meet each new challenge and adapting to
strange and unpredictable environments.
The researchers have produced a simple thermoplastic-
framed robot, says Hod Lipson, who developed it with Jordan
Pollack at Brandeis University, near Boston. "All the robot
has to do is find a way to move," he says. The prototype is
very basic and has no sensors, so it is unaware of the
world, though sensors could be added at a later design
stage.
The idea is that a task will be set for the robot, such
as: "Figure out how to move using only one leg and one
motor." A computer will then attempt to design a body that
will help it to meet this challenge most efficiently. At
present, the robot's body is built using the "rapid
prototyping" technology common in the car industry, which
can produce complex three-dimensional structures very
quickly. A device called a 3D printer uses a nozzle to
build up progressive layers of thermoplastic, slowly
creating the required structure
Although 3D printers are large and cumbersome, says
Lipson, much smaller ones could one day be built into a
robot, allowing it to change parts of its body, for
example, to reshape an arm to produce a new tool for a
novel situation. Mark Yim of the Xerox Palo Alto Research
Center (PARC) in California says this is one area in which
polymorphic robots could be most useful. There's no point
in taking an entire toolkit into space, he says, when you
don't know which tools you'll need: a single robot arm can
be shaped to do the job of all of them.
It is also conceivable, says Lipson, that the 3D printing
technology will allow several materials to be printed,
including conductive, nonconductive and even semiconductive
materials. "Wires, motors and logic circuits, as well as
structure, could be printed in one pass without the need
for assembly," Lipson predicts.
With each new task, the look of a polymorphic robot is
impossible to predict, because each design is "evolved"
using a genetic algorithm. The physical structure, and the
neural network that will be the brains of the proposed
robot, are treated like genetic information that can be
combined and mutated in simulation to produce entirely new
designs. The "fitness" of these offspring is then evaluated
and the best are "bred" to produce more offspring. This
process is repeated many times until the design has evolved
to do the best job.
To keep things simple, Lipson allowed the algorithm only
basic components with which to design the prototype robot:
straight plastic bars of varying lengths and electric
motors that can extend or shrink the length of a bar.
Joints are all ball-and-socket designs, as these are easily
created by a 3D printer. From these basic parameters a host
of complex--sometimes lifelike--structures have been
evolved.
Some versions push themselves along on one leg, while
others produce a hinge-like motion and crawl about like a
fish out of water. Yet another moves sideways like a crab.
"The robot is ready to move when it comes out of the
printer," says Lipson. Its motor, however, must be inserted
by a person. But the aim is to make the robots totally
independent, much like the vengeful shape-shifter in
Terminator 2.
When the robot has performed its task, it offers itself up
to be melted down, so its thermoplastic components can be
recycled into another useful droid by the 3D printer.
The idea of building and melting down robots is novel,
says Yim, who makes modular robots that reshape themselves
by fitting smaller robots together. "I've never seen
anything like it." But he warns that to make truly useful
robots, stronger plastics and more materials are needed.
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