Getting the bugs worked out.

• Author: Bay, John
• Position: Insect-like robots - The Future

When robots with workplace potential first appeared, maybe we got too much too soon. Technological feasibility for robotic technology arrived at about the same time as the walking, talking automata in science fiction. The temptation was too great then to fulfill everybody's expectations and provide such devices. It didn't take long before we realized that such humanoids were a tall order and that the world would have to wait.

Nevertheless, when the manufacturing community signaled its readiness to automate with robotics, universities and industrial R&D still provided an anthropomorphic design. Robot arms looked like human arms, had sophisticated central control computers and maintained much of the flexibility and versatility we enjoy in human arms.

Although we realized quickly that humanoid automata wasn't the answer, we learned too late. They already were applied at great expense to insertion and assembly tasks and to pick-and-place, painting, welding and inspection operations, all requiring simple repetitive movement with little intelligence necessary, only stamina -- not unlike a worker bee or an army ant. What was forced into service was superhuman; what was required, however, was a bug.

Bugs have their advantages: They're simple, cheap and plentiful. They're small and easily transported yet frustratingly durable. They're all identical and fully interchangeable, yet they can sometimes act as a unit. They form scalable teams when required but perform individual tasks when necessary.

Now on the horizon are such robot "bugs." Under development at Virginia Tech is a system of robotic "army ants" to transport unpalletized payloads through battlefield conditions without sophisticated automation. These teams of insect-like robots are about the size of a toaster oven, can be mass-produced at low cost and have minimal intelligence. They're fully self-contained...