Droplets: Mobile Swarm computers project turns to crowdfunding - video

University of Colorado, Boulder researchers seek to build a swarm of Droplet robots and have turned to crowdfunding.

They have been working on a robotic platform to study swarming behavior; their goals are to test swarming algorithms on a large scale, bring Droplets into college classrooms, use Droplets to teach K-12 science, and provide Droplets for artistic use.

John Klingner, PhD candidate, computer science, said "We are ready to scale up" and they would now like to buy parts and pay for 1,000 robots to be assembled.

Droplets are an experimental research and educational platform, for large-scale swarming research, using an MIT License


A Droplet is a small mobile robot. The platform features include moving and communicating omni-directionally.

The platform has three components, the hardware, the embedded software and the software simulation environment.

The required infrastructure includes a powered floor. The hardware component includes the actual robot and the test bed/floor that experiments are run on.



The robots are Ping-Pong ball sized devices. They have RGB color and IR sensing, actuation using vibration motors and communication, using analog/digital IR sensors.

Nikolaus Correll, assistant professor, computer science, said that after working on this robotic platform they have now reached a stage where they want to mass-produce them.

The team has used a promotional video to highlight the potential educational value of their Droplets platform.

Klingner spoke about bringing the technology to a wider arena of students.

He talked about their hopes in giving small groups of students, say, 30 robots, with which they could test out some simple swarm algorithms individually and then, at the end of the course, bring all 300 or so robots together for a more complex task.

Correll said the Droplets would be valuable for use in high schools as well: "We are also looking to collaborate with local high schools in the area and use the swarm" to teach them not only about swarms but maybe also about organic chemistry, math, geometry and the immune system.


His interest in the Droplets project reflects his deeper interest in what such scientific exploration can reveal.

"The entire world is actually a swarm so everything you see is just a swarm of atoms working together and at some point those atoms make a cell and at some point those cells make molecules; they make brains; they make livers; and hearts."

At the end of the day, he said, "all of these things are swarms." As such, Correll said he was "very curious to understand what the principles and mechanisms are that drive these things."

Taking these robots and programming them, he added, might increase an understanding of how to recreate such phenomena.

In addition to educational value, Klingner noted that one of the things they were thinking about is mapping an oil spill.

Anshul Kanakia, PhD candidate, computer science, noted a scenario where one is out in the ocean, not knowing where the spill begins, and wanting a good real-time map of the spill.

Each individual robot could make a guess, all go up and surround it and "talk" to each other.

Mobile LIDAR technology expanding rapidly

LIDAR can capture considerable data on nearby terrain, as seen in this image of an ordinary highway. (Image courtesy of Oregon State University).

Imagine driving down a road a few times and obtaining in an hour more data about the surrounding landscape than a crew of surveyors could obtain in months.

Such is the potential of mobile LIDAR, a powerful technology that's only a few years old and promises to change the way we see, study and record the world around us.

It will be applied in transportation, hydrology, forestry, virtual tourism and construction - and almost no one knows anything about it.

That may change with a new report on the uses and current technology of mobile LIDAR, which has just been completed and presented to the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences.

It will help more managers and experts understand, use and take advantage of this science.

Facing Constraints
The full exploitation of this remarkable technology, however, faces constraints.

• Too few experts are trained to use it, 
• too few educational programs exist to teach it, 
• mountains of data are produced that can swamp the computer capabilities of even large agencies, and 
• lack of a consistent data management protocol clogs the sharing of information between systems.

"A lot of people and professionals still don't even know what mobile LIDAR is or what it can do," said Michael Olsen, an assistant professor of civil engineering at Oregon State University, and lead author of the new report. "And the technology is changing so fast it's hard for anyone, even the experts, to keep up.

"When we get more people using mobile LIDAR and we work through some of the obstacles, it's going to reduce costs, improve efficiency, change many professions and even help save lives," Olsen said.

This lidar (laser range finder) may be used to scan buildings, rock formations, etc., to produce a 3D model. 

The LIDAR can aim its laser beam in a wide range: its head rotates horizontally; a mirror tilts vertically. 

The laser beam is used to measure the distance to the first object on its path.

LIDAR
LIDAR, which stands for 'light detecting and ranging', has been used for 20 years, primarily in aerial mapping. Pulses of light up to one million times a second bounce back from whatever they hit, forming a highly detailed and precise map of the landscape.

But mobile LIDAR used on the ground, with even more powerful computer systems, is still in its infancy and has only been commercially available for five years.

Mobile LIDAR, compared to its aerial counterpart, can provide 10 to 100 times more data points that hugely improve the resolution of an image. Moving even at highway speeds, a technician can obtain a remarkable, three-dimensional view of the nearby terrain.

A Cycle Helmet That Calls for Help When You’ve Crashed

ICEdot, the company that makes the smartest helmet out there, says that its little helper will only send out a signal if you’ve been hit hard enough to have to replace the helmet.

So every time you come to a skidding stop or clumsily dismount or fall on your face, the paramedics won’t show up. You can fund this little device at Indiegogo.

The Atlantic Cities has the one caveat:

There is one big catch to this potentially life-saving device: Should you be in a location with no cellphone service, it doesn’t work. So don’t go around crashing into fir trees just because you think somebody will carry you to the hospital.

Meet Nexi Robot; A Shifty Bot - YouTube

MDS (Mobile Social Dexterous) Robot Alias "Nexi". Usually when we talk about whether a technology is trustworthy, we’re talking about how reliable or secure it is.

Nexi, the robot in this video, has been programmed to exhibit body language that is intended to make people suspicious.

Developed by MIT’s Cynthia Breazeal, Nexi builds on prior research about body language and trustworthiness.

Studies from MIT, Northeastern University, and Cornell University identified four actions that commonly make people suspicious of others: leaning away, crossing one’s arms, clasping one’s hands together, and touching one’s face.

The robot was designed to mimic these four actions, and researchers used it in one-on-one conversations with participants in the study.

A human provided Nexi’s voice to keep the conversation natural, and another controlled the bot’s motions.

The study reports that when people unknowingly witnessed certain nonverbal cues, they acted as though the robot couldn’t be trusted.

Read more about the study at the New York Times, and then try not to play psychologist every time you see people touching their faces.