Actually, this building behavior is pretty complex. Another design team has done something similar. A group of five somewhat larger flying robot quadrotors assembled a six-meter tower made of 1,500 polystyrene foam blocks at France's FRAC Centre. (You can access a video here.)
The lack of technical information from the GRASP Lab may be because it is participating in the Scalable sWarms of Autonomous Robots and Mobile Sensors (SWARMS) project, which has military-related goals and is associated with the Army Research Office and the Army Institute of Collaborative Biotechnology. SWARMS combines artificial intelligence, control theory, robotics, systems engineering, and biology to apply biologically inspired models of swarm behavior to large networked groups of autonomous vehicles, such as deploying them to carry out a predetermined mission and to respond as a group to high-level management commands. These robots could also be used in rescue missions after natural disasters.
The KMel Robotics Website consists of a single page and a photo of the quadrotors, but it promises more information. Along with the 5.5 million other viewers of the latest YouTube swarming video, I hope it comes soon.
The GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania has its own Web site: https://www.grasp.upenn.edu/, where readers can find more information about the swarms of airborne robotic modules and other fascinating projects. It's interesting that the lab used the Mica2 "motes" from Crossbow Technology to communicate among themselves. Unfortunately, the company gave up that aspect of communications, although many other companies manufacture wireless-sensor devices.
Libelium, for example, sells a line of Waspmote boards and transceivers, and ANT Wireless has created a protocol for sensor "swarms." Texas Instruments and Nordic Semiconductor have licenses to use the ANT protocol in wireless transceivers. Find more information at: www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/ANT and atwww.ti.com/lsds/ti/microcontroller/rf_mcu/product_search.page?family=BTANT. The ANT protocol communicates over a Bluetooth-type channel and does not use IEEE 802.15.4 radios.
Companies such as Texas Instruments and Microchip Technology have their own protocols; SimpliciTI and MiWi respectively, or you can use the basic IEEE 802.15.4 transceivers alone or with a standard ZigBee protocol. The latter protocol, though, requires a lot of software overhead.
Janine Benyus would love to showcase this video for her biomimicry demonstrations. This is really an inspiring work and will send the pulse raising for the young engineers. This is the right combination of design, art, symmetry and above all clinical precision. Thanks for this article
The video of the system is awesome. It's amazing how little latency there is in the communications, which enables these devices to swarm in patterns and actually fly in a figure eights.
Definitely not a nano design by any stretch of the imagination. But it would be interesting to learn more about the fundamentals. They seem to fly with a great deal of agility. Curious about the controls. Any more information available on this yet, Ann?
I like the biomicmickry apps, too. I think they're fun, and show how clever we humans can be, imitating Nature (tongue firmly in cheek).
To answer your question, although undisclosed military apps appear to be the main ones for these little robots (which sound like a bunch of big mosquitos in the video), other possibilities include post-disaster rescue work.
I love these examples of research that borrows behaviors or materials qualities from Mother Nature. I get the benefit of the swarm approach for military applications. What other more mainstream/commercial applications might this behavior/capability benefit when it comes to use of robotics?
Inspired by the hooks a parasitic worm uses to penetrate its host's intestines, the Karp Lab has invented a flexible adhesive patch covered with microneedles that adheres well to wet, soft tissues, but doesn't cause damage when removed.
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego are designing a robotic arm that takes inspiration from the loose, flexible, yet very strong structure of the armored plates on a seahorse's tail.
Researchers at the Missouri University of Science & Technology have designed a new nanoscale material that can transmit light faster than the 186,000 miles per second it usually takes to travel through air.
It has often been said that as California goes, so goes the nation. This spring, the state's wind power is setting energy generation records and solar energy generation is expected to rise sharply during the second half of 2013.
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