Swarm Robot Technology

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently unveiled a project they have been working on called “M-blocks.”  At first glance the blocks look like nothing more than small cubes that magnetically attract to each other.  However, each individual block consists of a motor controller, fly wheel, braking mechanism, radio, and battery.  The M-blocks were built as an experiment and for research about a subject in current technology called swarm robotics.  The objective of swarm robotics is to have individual robots perform tasks that are oriented around a single goal that all the robots are collectively trying to achieve.  In order to study this, researchers have looked at various phenomena in nature.  Some examples of animals that work in ways very similar to this method are bees, ants, and termites.  These organisms have been given the term, “eusocial.”  They have fascinated swarm robotics researchers because of the ways in which they work together to establish small societies and survive.  Termites build large nests for their giant families, which consist of intricate pathways and chambers.  This is done without a single blueprint to go by, and their brains are very small.  This is what interests developers of swarm robotics the most.  They wish to give tiny robots the same central goal-oriented abilities in order to better the lives of human beings. 

Researches plan to use this developing technology in many ways that I believe will prove to be extremely useful for mankind in the future.  One way they want to apply the idea of swarm robotics is to medical practice.  Imagine doctors being able to inject cancer patients with millions of tiny robots in order for them to fight off cancer cells in the body and eventually cure cancer.  Or, imagine that surgery no longer required the uncertainty of having another human, prone to mistakes or even shaky hands, to open you up and essentially sew you back together.  With swarm robotics, tiny artificial intelligent creatures can pinpoint the problem inside your body and fix it.  This wouldn’t involve scars, long healing processes, or even half the medical risk that surgery does today.  Another way in which researchers hope to use this technology is for space and deep-sea exploration.  Tiny robots working together in order to form essentially one robot would be able to shape themselves in different ways in order to get to places where humans could not.  In deep-sea exploration, there are small crevasses in the landscape.  There are also depths in which could be very dangerous for humans to travel, even with the use of high pressure-resistant vehicles.  We know little about the organisms that inhabit such places, but could potentially learn a lot more from the use of swarm robotics technology.

Though I do see how this technology can be put to use in order to achieve spectacular results in many positive ways, like most technological advancements, it could also be used for extremely dangerous tasks if put in the wrong hands.  Most swarm robotics researchers have the strong intention of using these developments for the betterment of mankind.  Though this may be true, I cannot help but to think about what also could potentially be done with this technology.  If surgery becomes possible with swarm robotics, so could many other deadly attacks on the human body.  Biological warfare could become biotechnological warfare.  It is said that Israeli defense forces are currently researching how to implement this technology to make tiny flying mosquito-like robots.  They’ve been studying mosquitoes and how they congregate, find prey, and many times feed while remaining undetected.  Say these tiny robots were invented with the capability to swarm and inject poison into an enemy.  This could prove to be extremely effective in warfare, but also devastating to human life.

            I believe that this swarm robotics can be extremely useful in the future.  Like most interesting or important topics of discussion, there are potential positives and negatives involving the development of this technology.  If kept in the right hands, millions around the world could one day be extremely thankful for the development of swarm robot technology.