Seminar ReportTopic:

ClaytronicsSubmitted to:

Er. R. S. Sawhney

Made by:

Amit Mahajan

Roll # 74544

B.tech(ECE), 7th semester

GNDU, Amritsar

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Contents

1. Abstract

2. Introduction

3. Claytronics Vs Nanotechnology

4. Claytronics Hardware

5. Millimeter Scale Catoms

6. Software Research

7. An Internet in a Box

8. Nodes

9. Seamless Ensemble

10.The Research Program

11.Programming Language for Claytronic Ensembles

12.Shape Sculpting in Claytronics

13.Localization

14.Dynamic Simulation of Claytronic Ensembles

15.References

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Abstract

"Claytronics" is an emerging field of engineering concerning reconfigurable Nanoscale

robots ('claytronic atoms', or catoms) designed to form much larger scale machines or

mechanisms. Also known as "programmable matter", the catoms will be sub-millimeter

computers that will eventually have the ability to move around, communicate with each

others, change color, and electrostatically connect to other catoms to form different shapes.

The forms made up of catoms could morph into nearly any object, even replicas of human

beings for virtual meetings.

With Claytronics we are talking of intelligent material. How can a material be intelligent?

By being made up of particle-sized machines. At Carnegie Mellon, with support from Intel,

the project is called Claytronics. The idea is simple: make basic computers housed in tiny

spheres that can connect to each other and rearrange themselves. It’s the same concept as

we saw with Modular Robotics, only on a smaller scale. Each particle, called a Claytronics

atom or Catom, is less than a millimeter in diameter. With billions you could make almost

any object you wanted.

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Introduction

This project combines modular robotics, systems nanotechnology and computer science to

create the dynamic, 3-Dimensional display of electronic information known as Claytronics.

The main goal is to give tangible, interactive forms to information so that a user's senses

will experience digital environments as though they are indistinguishable from reality.

Claytronics is taking place across a rapidly advancing frontier.  This technology will help to

drive breathtaking advances in the design and engineering of computing and hardware

systems. 

Our research team focuses on two main projects:

Creating the basic modular building block of Claytronics known as the claytronic

atom or Catom, and

Designing and writing robust and reliable software programs that will manage the

shaping of ensembles of millions of catoms into dynamic, 3-Dimensional forms.

Realizing the vision of Claytronics through the self-assembly of millions of catoms into

synthetic reality will have a profound effect on the experience of users of electronic

information.

Development of this powerful form of information display represents a partnership between

the School of Computer Sciences of Carnegie Mellon University and Intel Corporation at its

Pittsburgh Laboratory.  As an integral part of our philosophy, the Claytronics Project seeks

the contributions of scholars and researchers worldwide who are dedicating their efforts to

the diverse scientific and engineering studies related to this rich field of nanotechnology

and computer science.

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The Role of Moore’s Law

This promise of claytronic technology has become possible because of the ever increasing

speeds of computer processing predicted in Moore's Law (the number of transistors that can

be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has increased exponentially, doubling

approximately every two years).

Claytronics Vs Nanotechnology

Forget Nanotechnology, Think Claytronics

Videoconferencing is like visiting someone in prison. You talk through a glass wall, but you

can't deal with each other in a meaningful way.

With Claytronics you could fax over an exact copy of your body, which will sit in that

conference room thousands of miles away, mimicking your moves in real time and speaking

with your voice.

Claytronics experts are designing a kind of programmable clay that can morph into a

working 3-D replica of any person or object, based on information transmitted from

anywhere in the world. The clay would be made out of millions of tiny microprocessors

called catoms (for "claytronic atoms"), each less than a millimeter wide. The catoms would

bond electro-statically and be molded into different shapes when instructed by software.

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Think of Claytronics as a more workable version of nanotechnology, which in its most

advanced form promises to do the same thing but requires billions of self-assembling

robots.

Processors are getting ever smaller, and at the submilli-meter level, they could

communicate and move around independently, thanks to electrostatic forces. This makes

the possibility of Claytronics even greater.

Intel and Carnegie Mellon joined forces in 2005 to cosponsor a project with a team of 25

robotics researchers and computer scientists. Their first breakthrough came when they

developed software that can root out bugs in a system where millions of processors are

working together.

The researchers say they will have a hardware prototype of submillimeter electrostatic

modules in five years and will be able to fax complex 3-D models --anything from

engagement rings to sports cars -- by 2017.

These are the fundamental building blocks for a new world of processing. Intel can see the

potential.

That potential could change the world. Who needs a TV when you can watch a live-scale

replica of Super Bowl LXX being fought out by claytronic football players on your coffee

table? Why would a firefighter run into a burning building when he can send a claytronic

version of himself? It's computing in 3-D in everyday life.

ESTIMATED ARRIVAL: 2017

1. SHAPE-SHIFTING: Millions of tiny processors called catoms could turn, say, a

laptop into a cell phone. Here's how.

2. Electrostatic forces bind catoms together in laptop form. Some act as antennas,

picking up Wi-Fi.

3. The software tells each Catom where to go. Catoms are spherical and roll around one

another.

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4. The catoms arrive in the shape of a cell phone. Antenna catoms are now picking up

3G signals.

Claytronics Hardware

Through hardware engineering projects, researchers in the Carnegie Mellon-Intel

Claytronics Project investigate the effects of scale on micro-electro-mechanical systems and

model concepts for manufacturable, Nanoscale modular robots capable of self-assembly. 

Catoms created from this research to populate claytronic ensembles will be less than a

millimeter in size, and the challenge in designing and manufacturing them draws the CMU-

Intel Research team into a scale of engineering where have never been built.   The team of

research scientists, engineers, technicians and students who design these devices are testing

concepts that cross the frontiers of computer science, modular robotics and systems

nanotechnology.

The team of research scientists, engineers, technicians and graduate and undergraduate

students assembled at Carnegie Mellon and in the Pittsburgh Intel Lab to design these

devices is testing the performance of concepts beyond boundaries commonly believed to

prevent the engineering of such a small scale, self-actuating module that combines in huge

numbers to create cooperative patterns of work.

At the current stage of design, Claytronics hardware operates from macroscale designs with

devices that are much larger than the tiny modular robots that set the goals of this

engineering research.  Such devices are designed to test concepts for sub-millimeter scale

modules and to elucidate crucial effects of the physical and electrical forces that affect

Nanoscale robots.

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Types of Catoms

Planar catoms: Test the concept of motion without moving parts and the design of

force effectors that create cooperative motion within ensembles of modular robots.

Electrostatic latches: Model a new system of binding and releasing the connection

between modular robots, a connection that creates motion and transfers power and

data while employing a small factor of a powerful force.

Stochastic Catoms: Integrate random motion with global objectives communicated in

simple computer language to form predetermined patterns, using a natural force to

actuate a simple device, one that cooperates with other small helium catoms to fulfill

a set of unique instructions.

Giant Helium Catoms: Provide a larger-than-life, lighter-than-air platform to explore

the relation of forces when electrostatics has a greater effect than gravity on a robotic

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device, an effect simulated with a modular robot designed for self-construction of

macro-scale structures.

Cubes: Employ electrostatic latches to demonstrate the functionality of a device that

could be used in a system of lattice-style self-assembly at both the macro and Nano-

scale.

Each section devoted to an individual hardware project provides an overview of the basic

functionality of the device and its relationship to the study of Claytronics.  In addition, each

project page is paired with a page of design notes that offer more detail on the steps in

building the device.

As these creative systems have evolved in the Carnegie Mellon-Intel Claytronics Hardware

Lab, they have prepared the path for development of a millimeter scale module that will

represent the creation of a self-actuating Catom - a device that can compute, move, and

communicate - at the Nano-scale. 

With the millimeter scale modular robot, the Claytronics Hardware Lab will demonstrate

the feasibility of manufacturing catoms in the quantities needed to produce dynamic 3-

dimensional representations of original objects. 9

Millimeter Scale Catoms

Realizing high-resolution applications that Claytronics offers requires catoms that are in the

order of millimeters. In this work, we propose millimeter-scale catoms that are

electrostatically actuated and self contained. As a simplified approach we are trying to build

cylindrical catoms instead of spheres.

The millimeter scale Catom consists of a tube and a High voltage CMOS die attached inside

the tube. The tubes are fabricated as double-layer planar structures in 2D using standard

photolithography. The difference in thermal stress created in the layers during the

fabrication processes causes the 2D structures to bend into a 3D tube upon release from the

substrate. The tubes have electrodes for power transfer and actuation on the perimeter.

The high voltage CMOS die is fabricated separately and is manually wire bonded to the

tube before release. The chip includes an AC-DC converter, a storage capacitor, a simple

logic unit, and output buffers.

The Catom moves on a power grid (the stator) that contains rails which carry high voltage

AC signals. Through capacitive coupling, an AC signal is generated on the coupling

electrodes of the tube, which is then converted to DC power by the chip. The powered chip

then generates voltage on the actuation electrodes sequentially, creating electric fields that

push the tube forward.

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Software Research

Distributed Computing in Claytronics

In a domain of research defined by many of the greatest challenges facing computer

scientists and roboticists today, perhaps none is greater than the creation of algorithms and

programming language to organize the actions of millions of sub-millimeter scale catoms in

a Claytronics ensemble.

As a consequence, the research scientists and engineers of the Carnegie Mellon-Intel

Claytronics Research Program have formulated a very broad-based and in-depth research

program to develop a complete structure of software resources for the creation and

operation of the densely distributed network of robotic nodes in a claytronic matrix.

A notable characteristic of a claytronic matrix is its huge concentration of computational

power within a small space.  For example, an ensemble of catoms with a physical volume of

one cubic meter could contain 1 billion catoms.  Computing in parallel, these tiny robots

would provide unprecedented computing capacity within a space not much larger than a

standard packing container.  This arrangement of computing capacity creates a challenging

new programming environment for authors of software.

An Internet in a Box – Only Generally Speaking

Comparison with the Internet, however, does not represent much of the novel complexity of

a claytronic ensemble.  For example, a matrix of catoms will not have wires and unique

addresses -- which in cyberspace provide fixed paths on which data travels between

computers.  Without wires to tether them, the atomized nodes of a claytronic matrix will

operate in a state of constant flux. The consequences of computing in a network without

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wires and addresses for individual nodes are significant and largely unfamiliar to the current

operations of network technology. 

Languages to program a matrix require a more abbreviated syntax and style of command

than the lengthy instructions that widely used network languages such as C++ and Java

employ when translating data for computers linked to the Internet.  Such widely used

programming languages work in a network environment where paths between computing

nodes can be clearly flagged for the transmission of instructions while the computers

remain under the control of individual operators and function with a high degree of

independence behind their links to the network.

In contrast to that tightly linked programming environment of multi-functional machines,

where C++, Java and similar languages evolved, a claytronic matrix presents a software

developer with a highly organized, single-purpose, densely concentrated and physically

dynamic network of unwired nodes that create connections by rotating contacts with the

closest neighbors.  The architecture of this programming realm requires not only

instructions that move packets of data through unstable channels.  Matrix software must

also actuate the constant change in the physical locations of the anonymous nodes while

they are transferring the data through the network.

Nodes, It’s All about Cooperation

In this environment, the processes of each individual Catom must be entirely dedicated to

the operational goal of the matrix – which is the formation of dynamic, 3-dimensional

shapes.  Yet, given the vast number of nodes, the matrix cannot dedicate its global resources

to the micro-management of each Catom.  Thus, every Catom must achieve a state of self-

actuation in cooperation with its immediate neighbors, and that modality of local

cooperation must radiate through the matrix.

Software language for the matrix must convey concise statements of high-level commands

in order to be universally distributed.  For this purpose, it must possess an economy of

syntax that is uncommon among software languages.  In place of detailed commands for 12

individual nodes, it must state the conditions toward which the nodes will direct their

motion in local groups.  In this way, catoms will organize collective actions that gravitate

toward the higher-level goals of the ensemble. 

Seamless Ensemble: Form and Functionality

By providing a design to focus constructive rearrangements of individual nodes, software

for the matrix will motivate local cooperation among groups of catoms.  This protocol

reflects a seamless union between form and functionality in the actuation of catoms.  It also

underscores the opportunity for high levels of creativity in the design of software for the

matrix environment, which manipulates the physical architecture of this robotic medium

while directing information through it.

In a hexagonal stacking arrangement, for example, rows of catoms in one layer rest within

the slight concavities of Catom layers above and below them.  That placement gives each

Catom direct communication with as many as 12 other catoms.  Such dynamic groupings

provide the stage upon which to program Catom motion within local areas of the matrix. 

Such collective actuation will transform the claytronic matrix into the realistic

representations of original objects.

The Research Program

In the Carnegie Mellon-Intel Claytronics Software Lab, researchers address several areas of

software development, which are described in this section.

Programming Languages

Researchers in the Claytronics project have also created Meld and LDP.  These new

languages for declarative programming provide compact linguistic structures for

cooperative management of the motion of millions of modules in a matrix.  The center

panel above shows a simulation of Meld in which modules in the matrix have been

instructed with a very few lines of highly condensed code to swarm toward a target.

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Integrated Debugging

In directing the work of the thousands to millions of individual computing devices in an

ensemble, Claytronics research also anticipates the inevitability of performance errors and

system dysfunctions.  Such an intense computational environment requires a comparably

dynamic and self-directed process for identifying and debugging errors in the execution of

programs.  One result is a program known as Distributed Watch Points, represented in the

snapshot in the right panel below.

Shape Sculpting

The team's extensive work on Catom motion, collective actuation and hierarchical motion

planning addresses the need for algorithms that convert groups of catoms into primary

structures for building dynamic, 3-dimensional representations.   Such structures work in a

way that can be compared to the muscles, bones and tissues of organic systems.  In

Claytronics, this special class of algorithms will enable the matrix to work with templates

suitable to the representations it renders.  In this aspect of Claytronics development,

researchers develop algorithms that will give structural strength and fluid movement to

dynamic forms.  Snapshots from the simulation of these studies can be seen in the right-side

panel at the top of this column and in the left-side panel below.

Localization

The team’s software researchers are also creating algorithms that enable catoms to localize

their positions among thousands to millions of other catoms in an ensemble.  This relational

knowledge of individual catoms to the whole matrix is fundamental to the organization and

management of Catom groups and the formation of cohesive and fluid shapes throughout

the matrix.  A pictorial context for examining the dynamics of localization is represented by

the snapshot of the elephant simulated in the center panel of images below.

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Dynamic Simulation

As a first step in developing software to program a claytronic ensemble, the team created

DPR-Simulator, a tool that permits researchers to model, test and visualize the behavior of

catoms.  The simulator creates a world in which catoms take on the characteristics that

researchers wish to observe.

The simulated world of DPRSim manifests characteristics that are crucial to understanding

the real-time performance of claytronic ensembles.  Most important, the activities of catoms

in the simulator are governed by laws of the physical universe.  Thus simulated catoms

reflect the natural effects of gravity, electrical and magnetic forces and other phenomena

that will determine the behavior of these devices in reality.  DPRSim also provides a visual

display that allows researchers to observe the behavior of groups of catoms.  In this context,

DPRSim allows researchers to model conditions under which they wish to test actions of

catoms.  At the top and bottom of this column, images present snapshots from simulations

of programs generated through DPRSim. 

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Programming Language for Claytronic Ensembles

The Motion of Each Node Is the Object of the Program

One measure then of the scope of innovation posed by Claytronics can be seen in its

requirement for a new branch of programming language to enable communication within a

distributed network of millions of modular robots. This makes the development of

programming languages to control the highly innovative form of distributed computing

implemented for a Claytronics ensemble a key focus of investigation for the Carnegie

Mellon-Intel Claytronics Research Project.

The landscape of systems nanotechnology to which Claytronics introduces the programmer

presents a largely unexplored architecture for the use of computing machines.  The structure

of its vast distributed network features an enormous capacity for parallel computing.  A

unique feature of this structure is enormous processing power in a confined space.  The

intimate relationship among many tiny yet powerful computing machines accentuates a

compelling novelty in the style of programming for a Claytronics ensemble.  

Programming thus evolves in Claytronics from the objective of moving information through

static and fixed networks into communication that commands a new dimension in the

expressions of computing machines.  From the powerfully confined space of a Claytronics

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ensemble, programming languages begin to explore the largely untapped structural fluidity

of millions of tiny robotic modules, which combine their responses to the programmer's

instructions to express a desired state of communication in 3-dimensional space.

Meld

Meld addresses the need to write computer code for an ensemble of robots from a global

perspective, enabling the programmer to concentrate on the overall performance of the

matrix while finessing the resource-consuming alternative of writing individual instructions

for every one of the thousands to millions of catoms in the ensemble.  This form of logical

programming represents a heuristic solution to the challenge of controlling the action of

such a great number of individual computing nodes.

Concise Instructions to More Machines 

From a resource standpoint, as measured in many fewer lines of code, Meld is a language

whose programs produce results comparable to programs that are from 20 to 30 times

longer when written in C++.  This efficiency yields a substantial economy of scale in the

operational time and reliability of the matrix.  It also reduces the time a programmer needs

to write the code.

Meld provides a reliable paradigm for efficiency in the actuation of cooperative motion

among millions of Nano-scale robots.  It does this by declaring positions that individual

robots achieve within clusters by common rules for direct contact.  Meld manages motion

as a continuous process of rule-solving. Each robot engages its contacts until it satisfies all

rules it can declare about its physical relationship.

Locally Distributed Predicates (LDP)

While Meld approaches the management of the matrix from the perspective of logic

programming, LDP employs distributive pattern matching.  As a further development of

program languages for the matrix, LDP, which stands for Locally Distributed Predicates,

provides a means of matching distributed patterns.  This tool enables the programmer to 17

address a larger set of variables with Boolean logic that matches paired conditions and

enables the program to search for larger patterns of activity and behavior among groups of

modules in the matrix.

While addressing variable conditions related to time, topology and the status of modules,

LDP triggers specific actions in parallel with other expressions governing local groups of

modules.  A reactive language, LDP grows from earlier research into the analysis of

distributed local conditions, which has been used to trigger debugging protocols.  From this

base, LDP adds language that enables the programmer to build operations that can be used

for more general purposes in the development of the shape of the matrix.

LDP shares with Meld the achievement of dramatically shorter code, the automatic

distribution of the program through the matrix and automatic messaging about conditions in

the matrix.

As it originates in the research to evaluate conditions throughout the ensemble, its strength

is in detection and description of distributed conditions.  From this perspective, it programs

locally, focusing upon a bounded number of modules in contact groups while basing its

predicates upon Boolean (if, then) expressions, which expand the basic set of variables that

the programmer can manage throughout the matrix.

Shape Sculpting in Claytronics

Lifting Catoms into the 3RD Dimension

Creating dynamic motion in 3-D poses the ultimate goal of the Carnegie Mellon-Intel

Claytronics Research Project. 

A Claytronics designer might demonstrate the complexity of this challenge of forming 3-

dimensional objects from millions of robotic catoms, each less than a millimeter in

diameter, by presenting an ensemble of these tiny spherical devices laid side-by-side on a

flat surface. This arrangement would present a 2-dimensional square, approximately a meter

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on each side.  This is the organized position that an ensemble could assume before the

application of any external forces.  How then to give it a 3-D shape?

With a flow of power into the ensemble, the sensors of adjacent catoms could induce an

electrostatic alignment or latching effect to increase the hold of one Catom to another across

this million-member network of distributed computing devices. 

With the fine grain particularity of each individual Catom, the charge in the ensemble might

enhance colors and shadings across the pixilated surface of each Catom to induce subtle

lines and surface perspectives that would appear with the activation of the individual voxels

-- in much the same way that pixels activate images on a video screen.

In this state, moreover, each Catom would possess sufficient micro processing capacity to

implement algorithms that instruct the device to localize its position in relation to other

catoms.  This information would enable each Catom to initiate motion and change its

alignment with adjacent catoms until the tiny spheres reach other locations.   Thus, the

ensemble would reshape as it creates a new contour in a boundary line or opens a void

inside its boundary while still lying flat.  

The Ensemble Rises 

All of these changes in form depend for visual effect upon the number of catoms actuated

across the length and width of the ensemble.  Yet the state of actuation described thus far,

even as it demonstrates important advances in distributed computing, nanotechnology and

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modular robotics, would also highlight the greater challenge of attaining a 3-dimensional

perspective -- in which catoms would rise from the flat surface to represent not only the

outline but also the volume and motion of a fully-shaped object, animal or person.

To gather height and volume from the array of a million catoms lying alongside each other

within a level plane, the ensemble must not only overcome the resistance of local inertia but

also mass sufficient internal force to oppose gravity -- perhaps the most difficult challenge

facing claytronic algorithm designers.

Localization

Determining module locations from noisy observations

One of the first tasks for a modular robot is to understand where its modules are located

relative of one to another. This knowledge is very useful: For example, motion planning and

control will often shift many modules from one location to another, and knowing the

module locations helps robot properly allocate the resources. The knowledge of module

locations will also be useful to identify a human user.

In order to determine their locations, the modules need to rely on noisy observations of their

immediate neighbors. These observations are obtained from sensors onboard the modules,

such as short-range IR sensors. Unlike many other systems, a modular robot may not have

access to long distance measurements, such as wireless radio or GPS. Furthermore, the

robot's modules will often form irregular, non-lattice structures. Therefore, the robot needs

to employ sophisticated probabilistic techniques to estimate the location of each its module

from noisy data.

Dynamic Simulation of Claytronic Ensembles

Visualizing the Invisible While Realizing the Unreal

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Long before the first ensemble of a million catoms can be created, the designing of these

never-before constructed robotic modules and testing of their performance in real-world

conditions must occur.  For this purpose, the research team assembled by Carnegie Mellon

and Intel to create Claytronics technology, created the Dynamic Physical Rendering

Simulator or DPRSim at the Intel Pittsburgh Research Lab on the Carnegie Mellon campus.

Demonstrating the validity of Claytronics requires extensive observation of cooperative

behaviors among Nanoscale modular robots.  The research task is made uniquely

challenging by the absence of physical prototypes that can serve as demonstration platforms

for these tiny devices, which are no larger than a grain of sand.

References

1. Carnegie Mellon University official site: www.cs.cmu.edu

2. www.wikipedia.com

3. Other information from: www.google.co.in

4. Images from: images.google.co.in and www.cs.cmu.edu

*All sites were visited between October 15th-20th 2009*

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