Robot rescue

New technology for controlling hundreds of tiny robots could pave the way for autonomous swarms that search for survivors in collapsed buildings.

Swiss firm K-Team Corporation has begun producing the 3cm-dimaeter ’Kilobots’, developed and licensed by researchers at Harvard University in the US, which can be programmed to operate in large numbers as an independent collective.

The researchers says robot swarms might one day tunnel through rubble to find survivors, monitor the environment and remove contaminants, or self-assemble to form support structures in collapsed buildings. They could also be deployed to autonomously perform construction in dangerous environments or assist with pollination of crops, inspired by insects such as ants or bees that work together in large numbers.

’The Kilobot will provide researchers with an important new tool for understanding how to design and build large, distributed, functional systems,’ said Michael Mitzenmacher of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. ’Plus tiny robots are really cool!’