A swarm on every desktop: Robotics experts learn from public

Swarm robotics researchers at Rice University gather data with online game

2013-09-10

(Press-News.org) HOUSTON -- (Sept. 9, 2013) -- The next experiment from Rice University's Multi-Robot Systems Laboratory (MRSL) could happen on your desktop. The lab's researchers are refining their control algorithms for robotic swarms based upon data from five free online games that anyone can play.

"What we learn from the game and our lab experiments applies directly to real-world challenges," said Aaron Becker, a postdoctoral researcher at MRSL. "For example, if a doctor had a swarm of several thousand microscopic robots, each carrying a tiny payload of anti-cancer drugs, might it be possible to have them all converge on a tumor using magnetic signals from an MRI machine?"

In the games, which are available at http://www.swarmcontrol.net, players use simple commands to move groups of robots through mazes and around obstacles. Sometimes the goal is to push a larger object to a particular spot. Other times the goal is to move the collective to a target or to have it assume a specific shape. Each time a game is played, the website collects information about how the task was completed. Becker said the data will be used to develop new control algorithms for robot swarms.

"The data from these games will help us better understand how to use multi-robot systems with massive populations to perform coordinated, complex tasks," said lab director James McLurkin, assistant professor of computer science at Rice.

To demonstrate the kind of complex behaviors that can be achieved with simple commands, Becker videotaped an experiment over the Labor Day weekend in which a swarm of a dozen randomly scattered r-one robots were directed to form a complex shape -- a capital R. To direct the robots, Becker used a basic controller -- a simple one-button, '80s-era videogame joystick that was capable of giving only two commands: rotate and roll forward.

"The robots are all connected to the same joystick, so each robot received exactly the same commands," Becker said.

The experiments were the latest to use the r-one, an inexpensive yet sophisticated multi-robot system that McLurkin began designing in 2009. Each bagel-sized r-one has a radio, a motor, two wheels, dozens of sensors and onboard electronics. R-ones are up to 10 times less expensive than previously available research-grade swarm robots.

In the Labor Day experiment, Becker's control algorithm directed each r-one in the swarm to a unique, pre-programmed, end position. The algorithm did this by taking advantage of slight differences in each robot's response to the two simple commands. In a computer simulation, Becker also showed how the same technique could be used to direct a 120-robot swarm to both spell out "Rice" and display the shape of the university's owl mascot.

"The controller commands all the robots to rotate, and prior to giving the forward command, the controller measures the location and orientation of each member of the swarm with an overhead camera," Becker said. "The algorithm collapses all of that information into a single number -- a measurement of error -- and tries to make this error as small as possible."

To reduce the error measure, the controller exploits "rotational noise."

"Each time the joystick tells the robots to turn, every robot turns a slightly different amount due to random wheel slip," Becker said. "The controller uses these differences to slowly drive the swarm to its goal. This is where the algorithmic results are critical. It might take thousands of individual commands to produce a complex shape, but the proof shows that the algorithm will always produce the desired goal positions."

"It's counterintuitive," McLurkin said. "Common sense would seem to indicate that you'd need to issue individual commands to each robot to move the group into complex patterns, but that is not the case. The beauty of the algorithm is that each simple move brings the entire group closer to the goal."

He said the demonstration is the first step toward a more ambitious goal.

"Aaron's new work is aimed at using environmental obstacles to perform more complex tasks and to simultaneously control hundreds or thousands of robots," McLurkin said. "That may sound like science fiction, but Rice chemist James Tour is developing massive populations of nanorobots right now, just two buildings over. His group can build many trillions of these in a single batch."

Becker said the current algorithm is slow, and data from the online games will be used to design new control algorithms that are as much as 200 times faster.

Becker, who will wrap up a yearlong postdoctoral stint at MRSL later this month, will continue his research at his next postdoctoral assignment at Harvard University and Boston Children's Hospital.

INFORMATION:

MRSL research is supported by the National Science Foundation.

VIDEO is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsbcIgHRSMA&list=PLYZT24lofrjX0COcX1Z5APiC_QeyN2mEr

High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at: http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/0909-ROBOT-becker-lg.jpg

CAPTION: Postdoctoral researcher Aaron Becker designed a new control algorithm that allows swarms of r-one robots from Rice's Multi-Robot Systems Laboratory to complete complex tasks -- including spelling out Rice's trademark R.

CREDIT: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Links:

http://www.swarmcontrol.net
http://mrsl.rice.edu/publications
http://www.youtube.com/user/aabecker5

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Upgrade to Mars rovers could aid discovery on more distant worlds

2013-09-10

WASHINGTON, DC—Smart as the Mars Curiosity mission has been about landing and finding its own way on a distant world, the rover is pretty brainless when it comes to doing the science that it was sent 567 million kilometers to carry out. That has to change if future rover missions are to make discoveries further out in the solar system, scientists say. The change has now begun with the development of a new camera that can do more than just take pictures of alien rocks – it also thinks about what the pictures signify so the rover can decide on its own whether to keep exploring ...

Butterfly wings inspire new technologies: from fabrics and cosmetics to sensors

2013-09-10

A new study has revealed that the stunning iridescent wings of the tropical blue Morpho butterfly could expand the range of innovative technologies. Scientific lessons learnt from these butterflies have already inspired designs of new displays, fabrics and cosmetics. Now research by the University of Exeter, in collaboration with General Electric (GE) Global Research Centre, University at Albany and Air Force Research Laboratory, and funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has discovered that the physical structure and surface chemistry of ...

Study finds men are more likely to develop physical illness than women

2013-09-10

TORONTO, Sept. 9, 2013 – Men were more likely to develop a physical illness than women during a 10-year period studied by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital. Having a mental illness increases the risk of developing a physical illness by 10 times in both men and women, the study found. However, women with mental illness tend to develop a physical illness a year earlier than men, according to the study by Dr. Flora Matheson, a scientist in hospital's Centre for Research on Inner City Health. Women were at a 14 per cent reduced risk, compared to men, of developing ...

UCI researchers fabricate new camouflage coating from squid protein

2013-09-10

Irvine, Calif., Sept. 5, 2013 – What can the U.S. military learn from a common squid? A lot about how to hide from enemies, according to researchers at UC Irvine's Henry Samueli School of Engineering. As detailed in a study published online in Advanced Materials, they have created a biomimetic infrared camouflage coating inspired by Loliginidae, also known as pencil squids or your everyday calamari. Led by Alon Gorodetsky, an assistant professor of chemical engineering & materials science, the team produced reflectin – a structural protein essential in the squid's ability ...

Therapy slows onset and progression of Lou Gehrig's disease, study finds

2013-09-10

Studies of a therapy designed to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) suggest that the treatment dramatically slows onset and progression of the deadly disease, one of the most common neuromuscular disorders in the world. The researchers, led by teams from The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Ludwig Institute at the University of California, San Diego, found a survival increase of up to 39 percent in animal models with a one-time treatment, a crucial step toward moving the therapy into human clinical trials. The therapy reduces expression ...

Brain circuitry loss may be a very early sign of cognitive decline in healthy elderly people

2013-09-10

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — The degeneration of a small, wishbone-shaped structure deep inside the brain may provide the earliest clues to future cognitive decline, long before healthy older people exhibit clinical symptoms of memory loss or dementia, a study by researchers with the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center has found. The longitudinal study found that the only discernible brain differences between normal people who later developed cognitive impairment and those who did not were changes in their fornix, an organ that carries messages to and from the hippocampus, ...

Early-onset Parkinson's disease linked to genetic deletion

2013-09-10

Sept. 9, 2013 – Toronto, Canada – Scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and University Health Network (UHN) have found a new link between early-onset Parkinson's disease and a piece of DNA missing from chromosome 22. The findings help shed new light on the molecular changes that lead to Parkinson's disease. The study appears online today in JAMA Neurology. Among people aged 35 to 64 who were missing DNA from a specific part of chromosome 22, the research team found a marked increase in the number of cases of Parkinson's disease, compared ...

Microbes help beetles defeat plant defenses

2013-09-10

Some symbiotic bacteria living inside Colorado potato beetles can trick plants into reacting to a microbial attack rather than that of a chewing herbivore, according to a team of Penn State researchers who found that the beetles with bacteria were healthier and grew better. "For the last couple of decades, my lab has focused on induced defenses in plants," said Gary W. Felton, professor and head of entomology. "We had some clues that oral secretions of beetles suppressed defenses, but no one had followed up on that research." Seung Ho Chung, graduate student in entomology ...

Autoimmune disease strategy emerges from immune cell discovery

2013-09-10

Scientists from UC San Francisco have identified a new way to manipulate the immune system that may keep it from attacking the body’s own molecules in autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. The researchers, led by immunologist Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, a professor with the UCSF Diabetes Center, have discovered a distinctive type of immune cell called an eTAC, which puts a damper on immune responses. Anderson’s research team found that eTACs reside in lymph nodes and spleen in both humans and mice, and determined ...

Study finds antisocial texting by teens linked to bad behavior

2013-09-10

For American teenagers, most text messaging is as harmless as passing notes, but University of Texas at Dallas researchers have discovered that engaging in antisocial texting can actually predict deviant behavior. On Monday, in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, scientists reported a correlation between the frequency with which adolescents text about antisocial behaviors and the likelihood that they will engage in them. "We were interested in how adolescents use electronic communication, particularly text messaging," said Dr. Samuel Ehrenreich, post-doctoral ...

Project to redesign clinical trials for neurologic conditions for underserved populations funded with $2.9M grant to UTHealth Houston

Menarini Group and Insilico Medicine enter a second exclusive global license agreement for an AI discovered preclinical asset targeting high unmet needs in oncology

[Press-News.org] A swarm on every desktop: Robotics experts learn from public
Swarm robotics researchers at Rice University gather data with online game

A swarm on every desktop: Robotics experts learn from public

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: