[Announcement] Robots will not satisfy their lust to swarm!

[drawn_inward]

New article discussing robot-swarming. Fascinating stuff.

Abstract:

Spoiler

Self-assembly enables nature to build complex forms, from multicellular organisms to complex animal structures such as flocks of birds, through the interaction of vast numbers of limited and unreliable individuals. Creating this ability in engineered systems poses challenges in the design of both algorithms and physical systems that can operate at such scales. We report a system that demonstrates programmable self-assembly of complex two-dimensional shapes with a thousand-robot swarm. This was enabled by creating autonomous robots designed to operate in large groups and to cooperate through local interactions and by developing a collective algorithm for shape formation that is highly robust to the variability and error characteristic of large-scale decentralized systems. This work advances the aim of creating artificial swarms with the capabilities of natural ones.

I attached the pdf for those interested (@stienman).

Spoiler

 

[PatrThom]

Saw the mentions of it. When you get right down to it, cells are just carbon-based micromachines. The only things keeping us from creating self-assembling silicon-based "lifeforms" (automata/replicants, really) are our current inability to manufacture anything with that sort of precision AND the abject terror a project like this would instill in the populace.

--Patrick

 

[drawn_inward]

When you get right down to it, cells are just carbon-based micromachines.
--Patrick

True enough. I describe cells and their inner-workings as machines or factories.

This video about transcription/translation really emphasizes that:

 

[GasBandit]

Grey Goo scenario imminent.