Many robots are able to complete a task on their own, but they work very poorly in a team. On the other hand, there are already machines that use distributed intelligence and work great in hive mode, but individually the bots of such a system are completely useless. And now scientists have decided to create a new, universal machine that combines both approaches.
In a new study published the other day in the journal Nature Communications, a group of European researchers have put forward the idea of a qualitatively new, modular robot.
Scientists at the Free University of Brussels have invented a multi-tasking robot that can act independently, but when it meets other fellows like it, it obeys the main bot, which scientists call the "brain."
They created an artificial nervous system where each bot acts as a separate neuron. But if the brain center is damaged, then the system is designed so that it can compensate for the loss. Three subsequent "neural" units must combine and replace the lost "brain" at least in part, breaking away from the dead node and reformatting the system. The researchers hope in this way to pave the way for the creation of multi-purpose robots that could perform many different tasks on the basis of just one platform.
“Our vision is that in the future, robots will no longer be designed for a specific task,” the researchers write. “Instead, we will create prefabricated robotic modules that will give the machine flexibility and the ability to adapt capabilities, size and shape to meet its intended purpose.”
In the following video, you can see how bots get rid of the damaged brain:
Well, here you can see how the modules change the general form of the system depending on the tasks:
Nikolay Kudryavtsev
Promotional video:
