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CLAYTRONICS: ENABLING TELEPORTATION
ABSTRACT: Transmission and reception of sound energy by telephone was followed by a revolution in electronics and its digitalization. Picture along with sound were then transported successfully from one place to another along with the miniaturization of electronics. Such developments motivated to think about human teleportation. Matter teleportation is still a dream, a dream not far away. Claytronics may make this dream a reality.
In this paper it is proposed the way Claytronics can be inducted into teleportation, various fields that benefit and finally their applications in various branches.
Teleportation is the transfer of matter from one place to another instantaneously, either by paranormal means or through technological artifice. Matter teleportation, however, is still a day dream, but along these lines researchers have come up with a new science called claytronics. The idea is to create small robots of a few millimeters in size (perhaps even a few nanometers) and then have them organise themselves into a shape that is determined remotely.
AN EMERGING FIELD
Claytronics (also known as ‘programmable matter’) is an emerging field of engineering concerning reconfigurable nanoscale robots (claytronic atoms or catoms) designed to form large-scale machines or mechanisms. The catoms would be sub-millimeter computers that eventually gain the ability to move around, communicate with other computers, change colour, and electrostatically connect to other catoms to form different shapes when instructed by the software to do so. The forms made up of catoms could morph into any object, even replicas of human beings for virtual meetings
According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, US, claytronics is described as “An ensemble of material that contains sufficient local computation, actuation, storage, energy, sensing and communication,” which can be programmed to form interesting dynamic shapes and configurations.
ORIGIN OF RESERCH
Claytronics research arose out of a combination of work on micro-scale computing devices and on tele-presence. To get these claytronics manifestations organise themselves, it has been suggested that they adjust the size and locations of empty chambers within a group’s general structure to from raised area or troughs. This would allow their overall shape to be controlled delicately. Photo-sensors and pressure sensors would allow input to be transmitted to any location required.
Claytronics is a more workable version of nanotechnology, which in its most advanced form promises to do the same work but requires billions of self-assembling robots controlled with computarised information. Claytronics technology has the potential to become a reality because of the ever-increasing speed of computer processing predicted in Moore’s Law. As the processors are getting smaller and smaller, at the sub-millimeter level they could communicate and move around independently due to electrostatic forces.
Realising the vision of claytronics through self-assembly of millions of catoms into synthetic reality would have a profound effect on users of electronic information. The undergoing research combines modular robotic systems, nanotechnology and computer science to create dynamic, 3D display of electronic information.
Initial research is focused on creating the basic modular building blocks of claytronics, on designing and in writing robust and reliable software programs that will shape ensembles of millions of catoms into dynamic 3D forms. The aim is to give tangible, interactive forms to information so that a user’s senses can experience digital environments as if they are indistinguishable from reality. This technology will help to drive breathtaking advances in design and engineering of computing and hardware systems.
PROGRAMMABLE CLAY
Researchers are designing a programmable clay that could morph into a working 3D replica of any person or object, based on information transmitted from anywhere in the world. The clay would be made of millions of tiny microprocessors called catoms, each less than a millimeter.
Claytronics would make possible a radical vision for the future of long-distance meetings. For instance, it may be possible to fax a copy of a speaker’s body, mimicking his moves in real time and speaking in his voice, to someone sitting miles away. The project — at the moment a long way from realization — aims to create nanoscale robotic mechanisms with computing abilities, capable of changing form and joining together to form large-scale mechanisms or objects. With claytronics, millions of tiny individual devices would assemble into macro-scale objects, connecting and disconnecting as they move.
The current large proof-of-concept catoms of 4.4 cm connect and move via electromagnetic or electrostatic connections, much like the ‘replicating’ robots difficult to control with the same technology. The catoms could have LCD or LED surfaces to produce a family glowing image of a person or object made of millions of tiny microbots that would actually look like the person or the object.
AREAS THAT WOULD BENEFIT
Researchers say they will have a hardware prototype of sub-millimeter electrostatic modules in five years and will be able to fax complex 3D models — of anything, from engagement rings to sports cars — by 2017. If it works, claytronics could transform communication, entertainment, medicine and more as it promises to:
1. Help users to carry around a lump of claytronics in their pockets that can reshape into any object and even act like 3D TV and create synthetic reality.
2. This technology would enable engineers to work remotely in physically hostile environments or surgeons to perform intricate surgery on enlarged claytronic replicas of organs, worked upon by a claytronic replica of the surgeon.
3. It may help scientists learn how to efficiently manage networks of millions of computers.
4. It will also advance our understanding of nanotechnology.
Many challenges need to be resolved before this vision can become reality. The hardware aspects of the task like making crude, clumsy and tiny devices work is difficult but manageable. The software challenges are, however, more staggering. Coordinating the work of a few dozen robots or programming millions to work together is incredibly difficult.