Co-sponsored by: Jared Johnson

In the 2014 Disney movie Big Hero 6, the protagonist Hiro offers a profound view into the future by manufacturing a swarm of 105 microbots. Hiro controls them to self-assemble, to build structures, and to transport goods and materials. While the “microrobots” of the film are fantasy, the ideas are rooted in reality. Producing large numbers of micro and nano bots is possible today. Micro-robots can be manufactured in large numbers by MEMS processes. Also, biological agents such as bacteria and paramecium can be grown to achieve large swarms.

Mr. Aaron Becker’s vision is for a large swarms of robots remotely guided 1) through the human body, to cure disease, heal tissue, and prevent infection and 2) ex vivo to assemble structures in parallel. A big barrier to this vision is a lack of control techniques that can reliably exploit large populations despite incredible under-actuation.  Results are validated with hardware experiments using over 100 robots, extensive simulations, and over 10,000 human-user trials.  You can help — visit http://swarmcontrol.net and play some games.

Speaker(s): Aaron T. Becker,

Agenda:

6:30 Registration

6:45 Dinner

7:15 Presentation

8:15 Q&A

8:30 Speaker Appreciation Presentation

Location:
Bldg: HESS Club
5430 Westheimer Rd
Houston, Texas
77056