From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Fri Apr 25 2003 - 07:28:05 MDT
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993661
A battalion of 120 military robots is to be fitted with swarm intelligence
software to enable them to mimic the organised behaviour of insects.
The project, which received funding this week from the US Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is aimed at developing ways to perform
missions such as minesweeping and search and rescue with minimum intervention
from human operators.
The project is run by US software company Icosystems, which specialises in
creating programs that mimic behaviours found in nature. Their software will
use simple rules to co-ordinate complex behaviour among the robots.
"We will be addressing some fundamental questions about control strategies
for robotic swarms," says Paolo Gaudiano, vice president of technology for
Icosystems.
The robots' behaviour has been modelled in a computer environment by
Icosystems but the company will now be able to test different approaches in
the real world. The 120 robots were built for the US military by I-Robot, a
company co-founded by robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks.
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