Reconfiguring Massive Particle Swarms with Limited, Global Control

Becker, Aaron T.; Demaine, Erik D.; Fekete, Sándor P.; Habibi, Golnaz; McLurkin, James

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-45346-5_5

Cited by 31 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Becker et al [64,65] have investigated the independent control of multiple T . pyrif ormis cells using a global magnetic field by utilizing the non-uniformity of magnetic materials consumed by each cells.…”

Section: Multi-microrobot Control Using Physiological Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The time taken for a cell to align itself towards the direction of a magnetic field depends on the amount of magnetic materials consumed in the body. By utilizing the heterogeneity among the cells in terms of magnetic materials, the authors developed a feedback controller [64,65] that can enable individual control of multiple T . pyrif ormis.…”

Section: Multi-microrobot Control Using Physiological Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Controlling multiple microrobots: recent progress and future challenges

2015

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Robots the size of several microns have numerous application in medicine, biology, and manufacturing. However, simultaneous control of multiple robots at this scale is difficult since the robot itself is too small to carry power, sensors, communication, and control on-board. In this paper, we have summarized different approaches, ranging from specialized robot design and fabrication to specialized ways of actuating robots, with the aim of independent control of a team/swarm of microrobots. We have also discussed the challenges for each approach. In the light of the challenges, we have proposed some directions where the future researchers can focus in order to solve the problem of independent control of a team of microrobots.

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Section: Multi-microrobot Control Using Physiological Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multi-microrobot Control Using Physiological Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling multiple microrobots: recent progress and future challenges

2015

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“…This paper builds on the techniques for controlling many simple robots with uniform control inputs presented in [8]- [10], using the following rules: 1) A planar grid workspace W is filled with a number of unit-square robots (each occupying one cell of the grid) and some fixed unit-square blocks. Each unit square in the workspace is either free, which a robot may occupy or obstacle which a robot may not occupy.…”

Section: A Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As shown in [8], AND and OR can be implemented with unit-size particles. However, particle logic is conservativeparticles are neither created nor destroyed-and we were unable to implement a NOT gate.…”

Section: B Dual-rail Logic and Fan-out Gatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The key challenge is to establish if interactions with obstacles are sufficient to perform complex operations, ideally by analyzing the complexity of possible logical operations. In previous work [8]- [ Gravity-fed hardware implementation of particle computation. The reconfigurable prototype is setup as a FAN-OUT gate using a 2×1 robot (white).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Particle computation: Device fan-out and binary memory

Shad¹,

Morris-Wright²,

Demaine³

et al. 2015

2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

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We present fundamental progress on the computational universality of swarms of micro-or nano-scale robots in complex environments, controlled not by individual navigation, but by a uniform global, external force. Consider a 2D grid world, in which all obstacles and robots are unit squares, and for each actuation, robots move maximally until they collide with an obstacle or another robot. In previous work, we demonstrated components of particle computation in this world, designing obstacle configurations that implement AND and OR logic gates: by using dual-rail logic, we designed NOT, NOR, NAND, XOR, XNOR logic gates. However, we were unable to design a FAN-OUT gate, which is necessary for simulating the full range of complex interactions that are present in arbitrary digital circuits. In this work we resolve this problem by proving unit-sized robots cannot generate a FAN-OUT gate. On the positive side, we resolve the missing component with the help of 2×1 robots, which can create fan-out gates that produce multiple copies of the inputs. Using these gates we are able to establish the full range of computational universality as presented by complex digital circuits. As an example we connect our logic elements to produce a 3-bit counter. We also demonstrate how to implement a data storage element.

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Geometric Aspects of Robot Navigation: From Individual Robots to Massive Particle Swarms

Fekete

2019

Distributed Computing by Mobile Entities

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Reconfiguring Massive Particle Swarms with Limited, Global Control

Cited by 31 publications

References 34 publications

Controlling multiple microrobots: recent progress and future challenges

Controlling multiple microrobots: recent progress and future challenges

Particle computation: Device fan-out and binary memory

Geometric Aspects of Robot Navigation: From Individual Robots to Massive Particle Swarms

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