Swarm robotics project further ensures our doom

Much to our dismay, this isn't the first swarm project that really makes us wonder how long humans will be running things on Planet Earth. MIT's own James McLurkin was recently down in Austin, Texas showing off a dozen or so of his hundred (is that even legal?) robots. The group was reportedly able to spread out, clump together, play follow the leader and circle the wagons, all of which were just ploys to distract us from seeing precisely how much they really know. Each of the appropriately-titled SwarmBots featured eight AA batteries, a 1.1-watt speaker, behavior LEDs, a radio, camera and an IR communications system. For those curious, each one cost around $2,000 to build, but Mr. McLurkin suggested that these were a bargain compared to typical research bots. It's all about perspective, baby.

[Via Futurismic]

[w00t @ May 15th 2008 2:08PM]

Videos here:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/jamesm/swarm.php#videos

[Boarderwoot @ May 15th 2008 2:11PM]

Sure they're cute, but no match for the CRAAAZZY RASPBERRY ANT!!!! Its a shame he didnt chose Houston over Austin....

[Idlemind @ May 15th 2008 2:25PM]

he should sick them ON the Crazy Raspberry ants...

DEATH-MATCH! DEATH-MATCH!

[ugg.tryptophan @ May 15th 2008 4:13PM]

(crazy raspberries shut down swarm bots), nature wins!

[j_g_puff @ May 15th 2008 2:21PM]

They can't do me no damage with a 1.1W speaker. Only people with incredibly sensitive hearing are at risk.

[Onetruebill @ May 15th 2008 5:52PM]

But they have a camera...
So they startle you with noise from the tiny speaker and then they take your picture and send it to youtube where you will be known as "the guy who is scared of small robots"

I'd rather take my chances with loud noise...

[pauly @ May 15th 2008 2:22PM]

James will also be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Sensors conference.
http://www.robotliving.com/2008/05/15/swarm-robotics/

[ant @ May 15th 2008 2:24PM]

Ehh...They're battery powered. No need to worry until they're powered by an arc reactor or dilithium crystals or something.

[JustFrozen @ May 15th 2008 4:20PM]

until they start replacing the batteries themselves =o

[retro77 @ May 15th 2008 2:30PM]

People, how many movies have to come out that fortel us getting taken over by robots? This is madness, this is SWARM-BOTS!!!!

[Mic2000 @ May 15th 2008 2:41PM]

Add the video link engadget:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/jamesm/swarm.php#videos

[ShadowMaker @ May 15th 2008 3:29PM]

I for one welcome our... Wait a minute. Forget it.I'm getting out of here!

[Eric @ May 15th 2008 3:38PM]

The name McLurkin says it all. We're doomed.

[DorianGray @ May 15th 2008 3:54PM]

This guy is a *serious* candidate for a Sarah Connor ass-whoopin'...

[Pauly @ May 15th 2008 3:47PM]

IM LURKIN IN YOUR BOTS
CONTROLLIN THEIR BRAINS

[jonahdsage @ May 15th 2008 3:57PM]

I'm so comforted by engadget consistently reminds us that the robot invasion is slowly but surely headed our way. Wake up america!!

[Jeff @ May 15th 2008 4:41PM]

I used to think it was all a big joke... but no. Combine some of these AI technologies with something like this: http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/06/gun_bot_1_4.jpg

and what the hell do you end up with??

The end of life as we know it, that's what.

Someday somebody's gonna combine a gunbot with swarm technology, self-preservation AI and the ability to self-replicate, and that'll be it. And all of those technologies exist individually already.

[maff @ May 15th 2008 5:09PM]

don't be daft, these are still dumb bots and don't have the cognitive function of a fly!

[amdforever @ May 15th 2008 5:51PM]

James McLurkin is the fucking man.

I feel obligated to let you know that.

[Cubex DE @ May 15th 2008 7:42PM]

@Jeff:

1. These swarm-bots are pretty dumb. They had no cognitive abilities of any kind. They only group together, navigate, spread apart, and follow each other. "The Invasion" is still a long way off.

2. That gun bot would run out of ammo pretty quick. And don't say that it would make more.

3. No way is that gun bot going to be able to self-replicate. Did you see how complicated it was? And think about the equipment it would need to build another copy of itself. That would make it even more complicated. Yes, they have bots that self-replicate, but that's all they can do.

4. Explosives would destroy that robot beyond comprehension. They will destroy a tank and a humvee, they'll rip that bot to shreds.

5. Yes, all those technologies exist. But they can't necessarily be combined. See number 3 again.

6. Think about what would happen if that was possible. No more military! We could just send some mean killer robots into Iraq and blow the hell out of the terrorists. That is the world I someday want to live in!

7. Ever heard of a UAV? They have robotic planes that can deploy tactical missiles now, missiles that will land within inches of their ground targets. A gun bot is really not necessary.

[Tom Moitie @ May 16th 2008 7:16AM]

I hate it when people take things too seriously.

I hate it more when people are just plain wrong... The robots are coming to get us!

[Doug @ May 16th 2008 7:58AM]

Come on, guys, this news is nearly 5 years old! Maybe now that James is touring and speaking it is more widely known, but he's been doing this for quite a while.

[JasonW @ May 17th 2008 9:17PM]

I saw James talk at Penn State (where I go to school). He is very interesting and very passionate about these robots. He uses a lot of technology that is used in the roombas as he was one of the top designers of it. Example: when they are low on batteries they will beep a certain tone then go dock itself.

[tsishkou @ Jul 20th 2008 4:48AM]

have a look at

http://www.semantic-robot-vision-challenge.org/

The Semantic Robot Vision Challenge (abbreviated SRVC) is a research competition that is designed to push the state of the art in image understanding and automatic acquisition of knowledge from large unstructured databases of images (such as those generally found on the web).

In this competition, fully autonomous robots receive a text list of objects that they are to find. They use the web to automatically find image examples of those objects in order to learn visual models. These visual models are then used to identify the objects in the robot's cameras.