Assembler robots could eventually build almost anything

[@amelialikesfrogs5778]

oh no they're multiplying!

[@user-if2jq8vr8y]

the invasion of robots

[@kadhambampookkal337]

Terminator

[@colinbutts252]

There used to be only one; now there R2. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@Koreyite]

Not quite

[@wellwelp313]

They are evolving as well

[@sunsen226]

This tech is gonna be used in building space bases for sure. Hope the system will become usable soon.

[@joelface]

My thoughts exactly. But it could also have widespread uses on earth as well, if the tech develops enough. However, this tech shows the voxels moving and re-configuring other voxels, but it doesn't show them creating voxels themselves, let alone any possible applications for these voxels in their current form (configured into a form that does what? It's a lot of wires and machinery if the end result is just to build a bridge or a dome). Still, very cool!

[@quasa0]

Nope. This stuff is super limited unnecessarily. You can have a fleet of different robots all dedicated to their own job that they can do well. So that they then can mine and forge resources, build factories and create new robots for their fleet. Future is definitely not lead by such simple self-assessmling structures.

[@aliomercansizoglu6719]

Of course my man, I will remind you when this is possible for about 37 years later.

[@conorstewart2214]

@@joelface the thing assembling the voxels doesn’t have to be made of voxels, even having a separate manufacturing module would be a very useful, maybe it could assemble the voxels from the individual side panels so that they can be flat packed for transport or storage. The manufacturing module takes the flat packed voxels and assembled them and outputs them for the robots to pick up. I like the idea of self replicating robots but it does have issues, like to be good at everything you can’t be great at many things, so I am more interested is different robots with different purposes collaborating than just using a single robot for everything.

[@conorstewart2214]

@@quasa0 very true, it’s like the saying, “jack of all trades, master of none”, a robot needs to make sacrifices to be more versatile, like increased weight and even increased cost for the microcontroller and control since it needs to be able to do more. You also can’t optimise for every task the robot will do, that’s why if you look at a factory each robot is designed for it’s specific purpose, they don’t use general purpose robots each doing different tasks. You can think about it in terms of people too, different jobs have different required tools, no one is going around carrying the tools for every job, it would cost too much, there would be too much to carry or transport and it would take up too much space, so everyone specialises what they carry with them and tailors it based on their specific needs. A robot that can mine, climb, build and manufacture would require the tools to do all those jobs, so it either needs to carry all that on it or use tool changers so it only needs to carry what it is going to use which brings us back somewhat to using different robots rather than all the same, it also loses its versatility only carrying one specific tool at a time. General purpose robots are good for versatility where you don’t know exactly how or where they will be used. If you know what they are going to do and where they are going to operate you are much better designing a robot for that specific purpose. It would probably be simpler to control and program to do that specific purpose too since it doesn’t contain any unnecessary features or actuators.

[@MeriaDuck]

I dreamt about building something like this when I was a teenager (like 30+ years ago). But computer science got me more interested and motivated so never got there. Love the fact that it is possible at all in terms of computation, wireless communication and mechanisation. Very cool! (Edited to hide my inital understanding where power comes from)

[@adamj2683]

Have you seen Big Hero Six? 😄

[@AaronBecker]

Here is the paper: Self-replicating hierarchical modular robotic swarms Amira Abdel-Rahman, Christopher Cameron, Benjamin Jenett, Miana Smith & Neil Gershenfeld Communications Engineering volume 1, Article number: 35 (2022)

[@gaslampnation735]

When we're swarms ever a good thing?

[@AaronBecker]

@@gaslampnation735 🐝 making honey? Search and rescue? Building a new hospital quickly? Swarms of platelets stopping blood from leaking out of your body?

[@ianmeade7441]

@@gaslampnation735 swarms of cells, bacteria, and motor protiens are doing a pretty good job keeping you alive right now. Probably.

[@Soma2501]

@@gaslampnation735 drone light shows are great

[@WillPreston3D]

@@AaronBecker retrieving plastic bottles from dolphin's stomach

[@sriharsha9286]

As always...very inspiring work @MIT

[@prenticedarlington2720]

At last, a serious, informative video. Just a shame it's so short.

[@gaslampnation735]

They just want you to feed the beast by investing in stocks. And if you are on the fence, replace your god with paganism.

[@Geeksmithing]

That's what she said.

[@Arominit]

Robots that can build bigger robots by themselves: This seems like a very good idea!

[@surronzak8154]

Yes it is, why are you so afraid ?

[@christiancarter6724]

Basically large scale programable matter. Cool as hell

[@saveplanet3977]

I frequently used to play this game on paper before, but geometry differences are there. This is interesting

[@Kids_Scissors]

Imagine seeing a massive unmanned fortress made of these machines, constantly reconfiguring and rolling forward on the horizon

[@doublecell966]

They'll take over before dawn

[@surronzak8154]

@@doublecell966 TAKE OVER WHAT, For what reason ?

[@doublecell966]

@@surronzak8154 it was just a cringy play on a game called horizon zero dawn lol

[@parthgoel1084]

this is ultron all over again

[@gaslampnation735]

Yeah, but this time we will own nothing and love the cybernetic crap out of it.

[@tanchienhao]

does anyone have the paper on this? i would like to see the technical details!

[@AaronBecker]

Self-replicating hierarchical modular robotic swarms Amira Abdel-Rahman, Christopher Cameron, Benjamin Jenett, Miana Smith & Neil Gershenfeld Communications Engineering volume 1, Article number: 35 (2022)

[@tinotibaldo]

@@AaronBecker my man

[@thomascayne]

It's all experimental and conceptual. Not capable up maintain load balance and independent without human mathematical intervention and input. THIS should have NEVER being made public until it is viable. So it modern "science" these days. It is ridiculous that they have to "publish" in scienfic journal FIRST before they are accepted by the communicity for validation AND so that enemies can know what's being invnted.

[@Blayzeing]

You may also be interested in this similar work from 2018 that has more of a focus on the physical structure of such robots: "HyMod: A 3-DOF hybrid mobile and self-reconfigurable modular robot and its extensions", by Christopher Parrott et al.

[@karlkastor]

Very cool. I hope something like this will lead to von neumann probes in my lifetime

[@szebike]

I like the concept it is similar to the biologic "robots" in our body. So we learn from the best.

[@andrewphilip3308]

voxels are geometrically cuboctahedra which is a kind of mean shape between the cube and octahedron. Join the centre points of the edges of either and this same shape results.

[@nineofspades4701]

Big hero six flashbacks

[@isalutfi]

Multiplying innovation

[@Si-annMusic]

"Aperture science, we do what we must, because, we can"

[@NishimotoBricks]

"For the good of all of us. Except the one who are dead."

[@mastershooter64]

@@NishimotoBricks "But there's no sense crying over every mistake, we just keep on trying till we run out of cake"

[@rickkowalchuk6391]

Intriguing to think ahead 20 years about the possibilities!

[@riyadhuddin]

Will they crush things in between or have sense to go way around

[@dalechenoweth915]

When they can build a Rick style portal gun, I'll take two.

[@Ungrievable]

Really the worst case scenario is that AI + self assembling, self repairing, self replicating and self evolving robots will just take up all the robot maintenance and repair jobs. So we’ll just have to adapt and find new jobs. It’s fine.

[@dirtydeedsdirtcheep3007]

We are slowly reaching the Horizon timeline... ROBOT DINOSAURS!

[@m.d2491]

0:35 .. hell nah, to the nah^4 - Bishop Bullwinkle

[@MythionVR]

Has nobody watched Stargate SG-1? have we learned nothing?! You're making replicators!

[@gaslampnation735]

Most fiction becomes reality. I think Elesium mixed with terminator has the mark.

[@hootsmin]

@@gaslampnation735 You want to mix Terminator with Transcendence, Upgrade, Bloodshot, Johnny Mnemonic, Strange Days, Colossus the Forbin Project, Eagle Eye, Gamer, Listening, Virtual Nightmare, 2047 Virtual Revolution, Ready Player One and Star Trek First Contact.

[@lyndaengler7753]

Replicators! Time to take a field trip to Antarctica and dig up that second Stargate. 😜

[@jmg9509]

1:27 😱As someone who is learning Three.JS 3D Library, it warms my heart to see Dat.GUI here, even if the libarary used to render the models is not Three.JS 😊

[@alexandrep4913]

I do not see how this specific iteration or mode is going anywhere for assembly. Maybe this is an issue of MIT media not understanding what they're actually used for.

[@penguinista]

It seems more likely that they didn't get that across to you in the couple minute long presentation than that they don't understand what it is used for. The paper will go into much more detail. Here is the source info: Self-replicating hierarchical modular robotic swarms Amira Abdel-Rahman, Christopher Cameron, Benjamin Jenett, Miana Smith & Neil Gershenfeld Communications Engineering volume 1, Article number: 35 (2022)

[@Dlowr7]

And that is how skynet was born

[@daviddickey9832]

Can't wait for these little guys to be building my new house on Mars

[@neuromancer8796]

I guess in the first years of colonization, all surface building will be a mix between modular building and 3 printing, instead of bricks u 3d and molding your parts then having robots assemble them, and assembly lines will play a big role in the colony building, instead of thinking every bit of the colony, have a successful design then produce it at scale and in different sizes, you can automate the whole process

[@jghifiversveiws8729]

Imagine this but scaled down to the form of macrons (macroscopic particles: basically dust). You could produce macrons that are hollow in pretty much any shape you want from spheres, to cylinders, to cubes, to voxels out of any material you want. And the different faces of individual macron voxels could even be configured to carry electric charges of opposite polarities allowing for the attachment of each macron voxel magnetically to one another and the creation of a scaled down version of this potentially leading to full programmable matter.

[@iam_anand]

It's like multicellular organism .

[@helsayana5873]

Awesome Job !

[@therealjagsnfl]

Mfs watched big hero 6 and said “we can do that”

[@fahadthgt7240]

Amazing work

[@Bubbamacomb]

Good stuff

[@gaslampnation735]

Actually in the seven days God made everything, this wasn't one of those things, nor did he say "and it was good". But by all means, if we are all to still believe things will get exponentially better if we just suffer more hardship indefinitely, sign right up!

[@romansobczyk6073]

Świetny pomysł na drogi w fabrykach na Księżycu dla robotów aby zachowywały równowagę przy przenoszeniu ciężkich materiałów w zmniejszonej grawitacji Księżyca.

[@johnnywright8920]

Let’s go Big hero 6

[@tjpprojects7192]

SIVA here we come!

[@D3adP00I]

Sounds ideal for creating a Dyson sphere

[@ericrodano7951]

Good work : )

[@satchelsieniewicz5824]

wana know why it they show so many simulations.... because they dont work beyond a few movements they operate open loop

[@cxsey8587]

“Honey! The house is walking again!”

[@user-cj4fu8qq9b]

r.i.p humans

[@RandomAmbles]

Why cuboctohedra? That's what I want to know.

[@oscaryuen311]

this reminds me of the magnets from big hero 6

[@gneugneu6253]

So the bots themselves are also part of the structure that's being built? Sort of like a human cell?

[@bryan8038]

thats really cool

[@yyusuf.22]

Date: 23.11.2022 my last year in high school. I'm preparing for university I hope to be a software engineer in this university next year.

[@rubenverster250]

I work for them now ^-^ It takes hard work, but you can achieve it with persistence If you meet Olu, tell him I say 'Hi' :D

[@gaslampnation735]

If you build it they will come.

[@yyusuf.22]

​@@rubenverster250 ıf ı meet you, of course ı tell. I'am doing best for my dreams

[@rubenverster250]

@@yyusuf.22 I promise you, they effort you put into this is well worth it :) You must just be consistent in improvement ^-^

[@yyusuf.22]

@@rubenverster250 I have a tough year ahead of me. If I can get through this year well, I think I will be good in the future and I am consistent in development.

[@spolo123]

A prequel to Rendezvous with Rama...

[@sophiehsu6740]

omg is this real life microbots

[@1.4142]

Walks like Kinesin

[@bartibv]

Mit is playing factorio in real life 😆

[@wompstopm123]

they need to use a motor that drives an embedded bolt that matches up with an embedded nut on the voxel. magnets are wasteful.

[@liberty99ca]

If they make them into nano bots this is essentially the Liquid Metal in Terminator 2

[@pleaseTodayTo]

it looks like honeycomb makes itself without honeybees 😁

[@teediaries1773]

Important just to understand that these robots are useless for materials used in current construction, but open the door for completely new construction which is better in many ways

[@porcorosso4330]

maybe a skyscraper built with modular parts and two dozen or hundreds of modular moving robots.

[@artazgang1807]

The same concept with Microbots from Big Hero 6 (2014) movie.

[@mikestaub]

Did they get this idea from Big Hero 6?

[@stickbugstickbug6320]

Imagine if you just threw a bunch of these things at a construction site and told them to build a building, and they did.

[@gaslampnation735]

MasterMold from X-MEN. Who wouldn't want drones making drones who all follow centralized commands. It's not that machines will ever be more wise then humans, it's the fact that they will be able to communicate and activate at a higher rate. Just think of a person clicking a mouse that does something, then think of a computer that can click 20k mice simultaneously. Humans are lazy, this will be autonomous in no time.

[@chicoxiba]

this sounds like a plausible way to startup in mars

[@Waltyworld]

Wow no I definitely need these

[@kikijewell2967]

Faro Automated Solutions: For every problem, a smart solution.

[@cbickfo1]

where r u??

[@kikijewell2967]

@@cbickfo1 Meridian.

[@thepm517]

I got to know that you mit is looking for me from a century. Now i m here. Wanna take in?

[@KeitelDOG]

The AI mind almost there, now prepare their physical replicating system.

[@gaslampnation735]

The portal is open, Baal is here. Most will worship this as pagans. Once our house is divided, the others will come.

[@vpatel_]

@mit bruh use a servoblock to increase the strength of the joints

[@bee_irl]

I have played Horizon and I'm afraid

[@d4rthpunk-908]

I dont want to sound negative... but... this may look cool but i dont really see any practical aplication for this. At the most probably building a space station (where that kind of communication and power connections will make sense. And at least just a gimmicky toy. Any other structure with such a high power and communication redundancy would not be cost effective. So to run that kind of data and power on larger systems is not feasible. Also, you dont build large structures with magnets so it would need some kind of automated bots or industrial clips. Things with actuators or motors to connect each part. The connection needs to be able to be: safe, secure, non-permanent, and repeatable/ware resistant etc... so i dont see this becoming anything more than a cool science project.

[@slavikmama]

Very cool! 😎

[@elihill3082]

I'll take the whole stock

[@nerdyPanda7288]

Have you guys tried using plant design, more specifically how plants react to light.

[@swimmyricky]

Wonder if they modelled two leg movement after vesicle transport proteins in cells!

[@martinTintin476]

#Mikrobots amazing. great job

[@kristinabegail]

Am wondering why they can’t have a big arm the can reach one place to another

[@Echap15]

Getting Blame! flashbacks right now

[@greysonroberts1985]

I'm not sure how many degrees of separation are between the managers of this channel and the design team, but why not use electromagnets for the motorized portion of the bot? It seems yalls problem right now is that yall have to balance the structural integrity of the non moving structure with the carrying capacity of the moving sections. Why not remove most of that constraint? Is it possible to make electromagnets that are strong on a small scale like that? Does it function better with purely natural magnets? Wouldn't switching out for electromagnets only limit the functionality of the system to the power of the motors? I assume yall would want to make this as small as possible, is functionally of the parts a current issue in relation to physical scale? Is budget a design constraint? I see this as an incredibly cool physical design project, but I don't really have the coding understanding of large control networks I would like to try to replicate this and try to make a better motorized module but without the control network there would be no way to test its functionality

[@greysonroberts1985]

Reading through the comments found the link to the paper, gonna read it when I get some time.

[@Khairulanwar-lh7nh]

i cann't imagine if the robot size at molecular level...

[@luckysoul5863]

These are like the robots from Big Hero 6.

[@shirishjadav1725]

Promising

[@serta5727]

Cool thing ❤

[@MrCzto]

Skynet is happy!

[@ryomichael]

Wow! Welcome to 1986! The year "Engines of Creation" (Eric K. Drexler) was published.

[@nsudam]

It will be the most innovative technology of this world.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@heribertohernandez2910]

Smashing alot of polygons here

[@TheI3lacky]

I wish i was smarter... lol. Would have loved to be at MiT... the things you Guys do, are just amazing.

[@questtech2698]

Agent Smith: Moreeeee Robot: Moreeeee

[@nota9341]

I FUCKING LOVE VOXELS!!!

[@NishimotoBricks]

FOUR FUCKING VOXELS

[@hassansaad6536]

Clearly big hero 6 is the inspiration here !

[@Nines_Rodriguez]

John Connor was right...

[@JOlivier2011]

make everything paperclips!

[@kaltenbach.alexander]

KZbin gotta make a purely academical algorithm.

[@lordmemester8798]

neat!

[@CBWP]

it's future littlebits...

[@shadow.banned]

Reminds me of Starcraft for some reason.

[@kedan808]

yall seen that movie..

[@21st44]

You should hire me I would do it in a day

[@piyush__upadhyay]

Magnets can't bear that much load. I think a pair of male and female rotating screws powered with a sensor can do the job.

[@CosmicAggressor]

Well. Someone was reading the bob books.