NEWS RELEASE <\/p>\n
Oct. 16, 2013 <\/p>\n
Software Uses Cyborg Swarm To Map Unknown Environs <\/p>\n
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <\/p>\n
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed software that allows them to map unknown environments such as collapsed buildings based on the movement of a swarm of insect cyborgs, or biobots. <\/p>\n
We focused on how to map areas where you have little or no precise information on where each biobot is, such as a collapsed building where you cant use GPS technology, says Dr. Edgar Lobaton, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper on the research. <\/p>\n
One characteristic of biobots is that their movement can be somewhat random, Lobaton says. Were exploiting that random movement to work in our favor. <\/p>\n
Heres how the process would work in the field. A swarm of biobots, such as remotely controlled cockroaches, would be equipped with electronic sensors and released into a collapsed building or other hard-to-reach area. The biobots would initially be allowed to move about randomly. Because the biobots couldnt be tracked by GPS, their precise locations would be unknown. However, the sensors would signal researchers via radio waves whenever biobots got close to each other. <\/p>\n
Once the swarm has had a chance to spread out, the researchers would send a signal commanding the biobots to keep moving until they find a wall or other unbroken surface and then continue moving along the wall. This is called wall following. <\/p>\n
The researchers repeat this cycle of random movement and wall following several times, continually collecting data from the sensors whenever the biobots are near each other. The new software then uses an algorithm to translate the biobot sensor data into a rough map of the unknown environment. <\/p>\n
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