This [3 cm total volume] robot allows building a large-scale swarm system (100 and more robots) to investigate artificial self-organization, emergent phenomena, control in large robotic groups and so on. This research is important to understand underlying principle of information and knowledge processing, adaptation and learning for the design and development of very limited autonomous systems.
Before being open-source, the idea of making a cheap, available and swarm-capable robot was born within the I-Swarm project . The original version of Jasmine robot has been developed in a cooperation between University of Stuttgart (electronic parts) and University of Karlsruhe (mechanical parts).
(Micro robot swarm video)
I've done stories on individual micro robots, but I hadn't really thought about the swarm aspect. In science fiction, tiny robots are often depicted as working together in groups. Consider the robot mice from Ray Bradbury's 1950 short story There Will Come Soft Rains:
Nine-fifteen, sang the clock, time to clean.
Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted. The rooms were acrawl with the small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal. They thudded against chairs, whirling their mustached runners, kneading the rug nap, sucking gently at hidden dust.
(Read more about Bradbury's robot mice)
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.'
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'