The recent discoveries on Mars (see the related articles below for more on that) have fueled man's colonization dreams. In this regard, they would need to be helped by something that doesn't suffer from the harsh environment and low atmosphere, at least until these issues are dealt with. In order to address this matter, as well as many others, a group of researchers, engaged in the I-SWARM project financed by the EU, has developed 100 tiny robots, measuring 1 cm in size and which will be endorsed with various capabilities.

 

Some of the specialists are trying to endow the microbots with self-reconfiguring abilities, as well as focusing on the possibility of re-assembling into bigger versions, able to accomplish more complicated tasks. The miniature machines will be designed to work collectively and to transmit information instantly, based on infrared technology. They will be useful for exploration and building purposes in tough environments (space or underwater), provide repairs, perform tests or treatments within the human body, or clean polluted areas.

 

The end project envisions the diminutive bots cooperating for the successful outcome of a task, based on a collective intellect, just like ants, bees or termites do, but ultimately controlled by a human operator. The larger “Jasmine” versions, somewhat bigger than 2.6 cm (about an inch), are carried by wheels, while the small ones, 3-mm long, move around by means of vibration. However, the developing teams have encountered some issues that prevent them from obtaining the best results.

 

“Power is a big issue. The more complex the task, the more energy is required. A robot that needs to lift something [uses] powerful motors and these need lots of energy,” explains Marc Szymanski, a robotics scientist from the University of Karlsruhe in Germany. The data processing speed and power is another major challenge, since these small machines have to rely on their 8 kB of program memory and 2 kB of RAM (1 million times less than an average computer) while performing their chores. With all that, the team is confident that these obstacles will be sidestepped soon and that the 1,000 ant-bots will eventually be completed.