New technology allows people to control an entire fleet of robots with a simple swipe of the fingers.
In this innovation, a user would tap the tablet to control where a beam of light is positioned on a floor, Georgia Institute of Technology reported. The swarm of robots rolls to the lit-up area, and communicates with each other to determine how to evenly cover the desired location. If the operator puts two fingers on the tablet to represent a different location, the swarm splits into teams to cover both areas. The breakthrough could allow an operator to send a large group of robots into a disaster area to search for survivors.
"It's not possible for a person to control a thousand or a million robots by individually programming each one where to go," said Magnus Egerstedt, Schlumberger Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "Instead, the operator controls an area that needs to be explored. Then the robots work together to determine the best ways to accomplish the job."
This technique differs from other similar methods of controlling robots because it is not static. The system is flexible enough to allow robots to "change their minds" to fit the situation, instead of sticking to a single job.
"The field of swarm robotics gets difficult when you expect teams of robots to be as dynamic and adaptive as humans," Egerstedt said. "People can quickly adapt to changing circumstances, make new decisions and act. Robots typically can't. It's hard for them to talk and form plans when everything is changing around them."
Each remarkable robot is consistently measuring how much light is present in its immediate area and communicating with its peers. When an individual robot senses too much light it moves away to leave room for other members of its swarm.
"The robots are working together to make sure that each one has the same amount of light in its own area," Egerstedt said.
Along with its applications in disaster zones, the new technology is beneficial because it can be easily used by people who are not technology whizzes or trained in robotics.
"In the future, farmers could send machines into their fields to inspect the crops," said Georgia Tech Ph.D. candidate Yancy Diaz-Mercado. "Workers on manufacturing floors could direct robots to one side of the warehouse to collect items, then quickly direct them to another area if the need changes."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal IEEE Transactions on Robotics .
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