Beyond Audio and Video: Using Claytronics to Enable Pario

 

AI Magazine

Seth Copen Goldstein, Todd C. Mowry, Jason D. Campbell, Michael P. Ashley-Rollman, Michael De Rosa, Stanislav Funiak, James F. Hoburg, Mustafa Emre Karagozler, Brian Kirby, Peter Lee, Padmanabhan Pillai, J. Robert Reid, Daniel D. Stancil, and Michael Philetus Weller

30(2)

Jul 1990

Abstract

In this article, we describe the hardware and software challenges involved in realizing Claytronics, a form of programmable matter made out of very large numbers-potentially millions-of submillimeter sized spherical robots. The goal of the claytronics project is to create ensembles of cooperating submillimeter robots, which work together to form dynamic 3D physical objects. For example, claytronics might be used in telepresense to mimic, with high-fidelity and in 3-dimensional solid form, the look, feel, and motion of the person at the other end of the telephone call. To achieve this long-range vision we are investigating hardware mechanisms for constructing submillimeter robots, which can be manufactured en masse using photolithography. We also propose the creation of a new media type, which we call pario. The idea behind pario is to render arbitrary moving, physical 3-dimensional objects that you can see, touch, and even hold in your hands. In parallel with our hardware effort, we are developing novel distributed programming languages and algorithms to control the ensembles, LDP and Meld. Pario may fundamentally change how we communicate with others and interact with the world around us. Our research results to date suggest that there is a viable path to implementing both the hardware and software necessary for claytronics, which is a form of programmable matter that can be used to implement pario. While we have made significant progress, there is still much research ahead in order to turn this vision into reality.

@article{goldstein09,
  author = {Goldstein, Seth Copen and Mowry, Todd C. and Campbell,
     Jason D. and Ashley-Rollman, Michael P. and De~Rosa, Michael and
     Funiak, Stanislav and Hoburg, James F. and Karagozler, Mustafa
     Emre and Kirby, Brian and Lee, Peter and Pillai, Padmanabhan and
     Reid, J. Robert and Stancil, Daniel D. and Weller, Michael
     Philetus},
  title = {Beyond Audio and Video: Using Claytronics to Enable Pario},
  journal = {AI Magazine},
  year = {2009},
  volume = {30},
  number = {2},
  month = {Jul},
  keywords = {Claytronics},
  abstract = {In this article, we describe the hardware and software
     challenges involved in realizing Claytronics, a form of
     programmable matter made out of very large numbers-potentially
     millions-of submillimeter sized spherical robots. The goal of the
     claytronics project is to create ensembles of cooperating
     submillimeter robots, which work together to form dynamic 3D
     physical objects. For example, claytronics might be used in
     telepresense to mimic, with high-fidelity and in 3-dimensional
     solid form, the look, feel, and motion of the person at the other
     end of the telephone call. To achieve this long-range vision we
     are investigating hardware mechanisms for constructing
     submillimeter robots, which can be manufactured en masse using
     photolithography. We also propose the creation of a new media
     type, which we call pario. The idea behind pario is to render
     arbitrary moving, physical 3-dimensional objects that you can
     see, touch, and even hold in your hands. In parallel with our
     hardware effort, we are developing novel distributed programming
     languages and algorithms to control the ensembles, LDP and Meld.
     Pario may fundamentally change how we communicate with others and
     interact with the world around us. Our research results to date
     suggest that there is a viable path to implementing both the
     hardware and software necessary for claytronics, which is a form
     of programmable matter that can be used to implement pario. While
     we have made significant progress, there is still much research
     ahead in order to turn this vision into reality.},
}

Related Papers

Claytronics
Distributed Intelligent MEMS: Progresses and Perspectives
Julien Bourgeois and Seth Copen Goldstein. In ICT Innovations 2011, volume 150, pages 15–25, 1990.
Beyond Audio and Video: Using Claytronics to Enable Pario
Seth Copen Goldstein, Todd C. Mowry, Jason D. Campbell, Michael P. Ashley-Rollman, Michael De Rosa, Stanislav Funiak, James F. Hoburg, Mustafa Emre Karagozler, Brian Kirby, Peter Lee, Padmanabhan Pillai, J. Robert Reid, Daniel D. Stancil, and Michael Philetus Weller. AI Magazine, 30(2), Jul 1990.
Programming Modular Robots with Locally Distributed Predicates
Michael De Rosa, Seth Copen Goldstein, Peter Lee, Jason D. Campbell, and Padmanabhan Pillai. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA '08, 1990.
A Modular Robotic System Using Magnetic Force Effectors
Brian Kirby, Burak Aksak, Seth Copen Goldstein, James F. Hoburg, Todd C. Mowry, and Padmanabhan Pillai. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS '07), Oct 1990.
A Scalable Distributed Algorithm for Shape Transformation in Multi-Robot Systems
Ramprasad Ravichandran, Geoffrey Gordon, and Seth Copen Goldstein. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems IROS '07, Oct 1990.
Declarative Programming for Modular Robots
Michael P. Ashley-Rollman, Michael De Rosa, Siddhartha S. Srinivasa, Padmanabhan Pillai, Seth Copen Goldstein, and Jason D. Campbell. In Workshop on Self-Reconfigurable Robots/Systems and Applications at IROS '07, Oct 1990.
Electrostatic Latching for Inter-module Adhesion, Power Transfer, and Communication in Modular Robots
Mustafa Emre Karagozler, Jason D. Campbell, Gary K. Fedder, Seth Copen Goldstein, Michael Philetus Weller, and Byung W. Yoon. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS '07), Oct 1990.
Internal Localization of Modular Robot Ensembles
Stanislav Funiak, Padmanabhan Pillai, Jason D. Campbell, and Seth Copen Goldstein. In Workshop on Self-Reconfiguring Modular Robotics at the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) '07, Oct 1990.
Meld: A Declarative Approach to Programming Ensembles
Michael P. Ashley-Rollman, Seth Copen Goldstein, Peter Lee, Todd C. Mowry, and Padmanabhan Pillai. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS '07), Oct 1990.
Movement Primitives for an Orthogonal Prismatic Closed-Lattice-Constrained Self-Reconfiguring Module
Michael Philetus Weller, Mustafa Emre Karagozler, Brian Kirby, Jason D. Campbell, and Seth Copen Goldstein. In Workshop on Self-Reconfiguring Modular Robotics at the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) '07, Oct 1990.
Distributed Watchpoints: Debugging Very Large Ensembles of Robots
Michael De Rosa, Seth Copen Goldstein, Peter Lee, Jason D. Campbell, and Padmanabhan Pillai. In Robotics: Science and Systems Workshop on Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robots, Aug 1990.
Hierarchical Motion Planning for Self-reconfigurable Modular Robots
Preethi Srinivas Bhat, James Kuffner, Seth Copen Goldstein, and Siddhartha Srinivasa. In 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Confernce on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Oct 1990.
Scalable Shape Sculpting via Hole Motion: Motion Planning in Lattice-Constrained Module Robots
Michael De Rosa, Seth Copen Goldstein, Peter Lee, Jason D. Campbell, and Padmanabhan Pillai. In Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA '06), May 1990.
Ultralight Modular Robotic Building blocks for the Rapid Deployment of Planetary Outposts
Mustafa Emre Karagozler, Brian Kirby, W.J. Lee, Eugene Marinelli, T.C. Ng, Michael Weller, and Seth Copen Goldstein. In Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Forum 2006, May 1990.
2029 The 3-D Fax Machine Brings Back the House Call
Seth Copen Goldstein. Headline from the Future, Popular Science Magazine, pages 34, Mar 1990.
Catoms: Moving Robots Without Moving Parts
Brian Kirby, Jason D. Campbell, Burak Aksak, Padmanabhan Pillai, James F. Hoburg, Todd C. Mowry, and Seth Copen Goldstein. In AAAI (Robot Exhibition), pages 1730–1, Jul 1990.
Demo Abstract: Claytronics---highly scalable communications, sensing, and actuation networks.
Burak Aksak, Preethi Srinivas Bhat, Jason D. Campbell, Michael De Rosa, Stanislav Funiak, Phillip B. Gibbons, Seth Copen Goldstein, Carlos Guestrin, Ashish Gupta, Casey Helfrich, James F. Hoburg, Brian Kirby, James Kuffner, Peter Lee, Todd C. Mowry, Padmanabhan Pillai, Ram Ravichandran, Benjamin D. Rister, Srinivasan Seshan, Metin Sitti, and Haifeng Yu. In Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Embedded networked sensor systems (SenSys), pages 299, 1990.
Programmable Matter
Seth Copen Goldstein, Jason D. Campbell, and Todd C. Mowry. IEEE Computer, 38(6):99–101, Jun 1990.
The Ensemble Principle
Seth Copen Goldstein, Todd C. Mowry, Jason D. Campbell, Peter Lee, Padmanabhan Pillai, James F. Hoburg, Phillip B. Gibbons, Carlos Guestrin, James Kuffner, Brian Kirby, Benjamin D. Rister, Michael De Rosa, Stanislav Funiak, Burak Aksak, and Rahul Sukthankar. In 13th Foresight Conference of Advanced Nanotechnogy, Oct 1990.
The Robot is the Tether: Active, Adaptive Power Routing for Modular Robots With Unary Inter-robot Connectors
Jason D. Campbell, Padmanabhan Pillai, and Seth Copen Goldstein. In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2005), pages 4108–15, Aug 1990.
Claytronics: A scalable basis for future robots
Seth Copen Goldstein and Todd C. Mowry. In RoboSphere 2004, Nov 1990.
Claytronics: An Instance of Programmable Matter
Seth Copen Goldstein and Todd C. Mowry. In Wild and Crazy Ideas Session of ASPLOS, Oct 1990.


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