The Ensemble Principle

@inproceedings{kirby05,
  author = {Kirby, Brian and Campbell, Jason D. and Aksak, Burak and
     Pillai, Padmanabhan and Hoburg, James F. and Mowry, Todd C. and
     Goldstein, Seth Copen},
  title = {Catoms: Moving Robots Without Moving Parts},
  url = {http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics/papers/kirby05.pdf},
  booktitle = {AAAI (Robot Exhibition)},
  venue = {AAAI (Robot Exhibition)},
  pages = {1730--1},
  year = {2005},
  month = {July},
  address = {Pittsburgh, PA},
  keywords = {Ensemble Principle},
  abstract = {We demonstrate modular robot prototypes developed as
     part of the Claytronics Project (Goldstein et al. 2005). Among
     the novel features of these robots (“catoms”) is their ability to
     reconfigure (move) relative to one another without moving parts.
     The absence of moving parts is central to one key aim of our
     work, namely, plausible manufacturability at smaller and smaller
     physical scales using high-volume, low-unit-cost techniques such
     as batch photolithography, multi-material submicron 3D
     lithographic processing, and self assembly. Claytronics envisions
     multi-million-module robot ensembles able to form into three
     dimensional scenes, eventually with sufficient fidelity so as to
     convince a human observer the scenes are real. This work presents
     substantial challenges in mechanical and electronic design,
     control, programming, reliability, power delivery, and motion
     planning (among other areas), and holds the promise of radically
     altering the relationship between computation, humans, and the
     physical world.},
}

@inproceedings{goldstein05,
  author = {Goldstein, Seth Copen and Mowry, Todd C. and Campbell,
     Jason D. and Lee, Peter and Pillai, Padmanabhan and Hoburg, James
     F. and Gibbons, Phillip B. and Guestrin, Carlos and Kuffner,
     James and Kirby, Brian and Rister, Benjamin D. and De~Rosa,
     Michael and Funiak, Stanislav and Aksak, Burak and Sukthankar,
     Rahul},
  title = {The Ensemble Principle},
  booktitle = {13th Foresight Conference of Advanced Nanotechnogy},
  venue = {Foresight Conference of Advanced Nanotechnogy},
  url = {http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics/papers/goldstein05.html},
  year = {2005},
  month = {October},
  address = {San Francisco, CA},
  keywords = {Ensemble Principle},
}