C[omp]ute

From: Shae Matijs Erisson <shae@...>

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 04:43:34 +0100

"andrew cooke" <andrew@...> writes:

> I was wondering whether the pieces could sometimes separate (I think
> they'd need to stay in pairs at least to be mobile in this design).  And
> how you could program them so that they would work both as a swarm and as
> an individual unit.  Would you need to infer the shape of the whole, or
> can you start with basic motions and learn, for example?

Memetic StarLogo-style robots would be really cool.

I've thought about a self-propelled fluffball. 
Take a sphere, covered with tentacles the thickness of a pencil, with the
pencil lead in the center being flexible but not compressible.
The stuff around the 'pencil lead' would be divided into three sections, each
of which could contract indepedently.
A neural network could learn how to move that.

What you describe sounds a bit like robotic lego jellyfish. Very nifty.
-- 
Shae Matijs Erisson - http://www.ScannedInAvian.com/ - Sockmonster once said:
You could switch out the unicycles for badgers, and the game would be the same.