Moores Law

Claytronics
Seth Copen Goldstein
www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics RSS 6/11/05
Joint work with Todd Mowry and Baker, Campbell, Gibbons, Guestrin, Hoburg, Kufner, Lee, Pillai, Seshan, Sitti, Sukthankar, Veloso, Kirby, Aksak, Bhat, Bowers, DeRosa, Rister, Stanos
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Goodness

Time
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Moores Law

Where are we in 50 years?

1949 Eniac 2003 2050 greeting Programmable card matter 1$ 1 millicent 1 oz 1 cm3 20mW 25ns 4KB 20 g 1 nm3?? (1 m3) 2 attowatts 2 picosec 16KB
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Goodness

Happy Ha Happy pp y B BDay Bday Da y

5M-23M (2002 $) Weight 30 tons Volume 450 M3 Power 200KW Cycle time >200s Storage <800B
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Cost

Time
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Cogent arguments for both sooner and later exist

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audio
Encoding
01110010

pario
Latin:

to bear, bring forth, produce; create, make, get

mp3

video
Encoding
01110010

Encoding
01110010

mpeg
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Science Fiction?

Science fiction?
Sensor Nets
Sitti/CMU

MEMS/Nanotech Amorphous Computing/ Emergent Behavior

Rus/MIT

Modular Robots

Fearing/UCB

Materials
Amorphous Computing/MIT

Multi-Robot Teams
Flynn/SRI

s vi n kla

ofW /U

Yim/Parc

Rabinett&BBC

Flynn/SRI
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IRobot
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Veloso/CMU

Claytronics/CMU 8

Claytronics & Catoms

Claytronics & Catoms

The old way: Monolithic

Not AI Just the system to render 3D dynamic objects

Terminator 2: Judgment day trailer
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The Claytronic way: Ensemble of claytronic atoms

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The Claytronic way: Ensemble of claytronic atoms

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Claytronics & Catoms

Ensemble of elements which each contain
Processor Communication Power Sensing Display Actuation Programmable adhesive

Capture

1. Capture 3D Object 2. Encode 3D model 3. Transmit data

Can be programmed to form interesting dynamic shapes and configurations. The Claytronic A system for exploring the computer way: Ensemble of claytronic atoms science of programmable matter
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Reproduce

A Claytronic Atom: Catom

3-5 years
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5+ years
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A Claytronic Atom: Catom

A Claytronic Atom: Catom

The outside is studded with contacts

Each catom can display an image/pixel

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Inside the Catom

Inside the Catom

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Inside the Catom

Communication Antenna SuperCap Computer

Moving the Catom

Programmable Magnets We can buy these today!

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Moving the Catom

Moving the Catom

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Moving the Catom

Simulation of Future Catoms

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Claytronics REV4
2D system Modular design

REV3

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Magnets For Locomotion

Up down
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Design Principles
Goal: Scaling
(in numbers) (in size)

sub-goals:
simplicity robustness homogeneity no static power distributed, but catom local computation low complexity algs
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Design Principles
Goal: Scaling
Up down
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The Ensemble Axiom

Goal: Scaling
Up down (in numbers) (in size)

sub-goals:

(in numbers) Some consequences: (in size) No moving parts

Consequences:
No moving parts Genderless, unary connectors No self-contained power source New programming paradigm

simplicity Genderless, unary connectors robustness self-contained power source No homogeneity programming paradigm New no static power distributed, but catom local computation low complexity algs
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The Ensemble Axiom:

A catom should include only enough functionality to contribute to the desired functionality of the ensemble
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A day in the life of a catom

Get power! Localize Establish a network Get to work
move to desired location If on surface, display video,

The Robot is the tether

Catoms have no battery They cooperatively create a power grid Challenge:
connectors are
unary genderless
+ or unary +

binary

insulator

Requires two indep sub-graphs

Vdd Ground
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The Robot is the tether

Catoms have no battery They cooperatively create a power grid Challenge:
connectors are
unary genderless

Multiphase Algorithm
First, passive resister net Second, distributed environment/guid-oblivious algorithm Third, fix-up
contact patches
(overlying electromagnetic or electrostatic actuators)

Requires two indep sub-graphs

Vdd Ground
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passive resistor network

(resistors link contact patches)
20v

portion of a robot ensemble

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Multiphase Algorithm
First, passive resister net Second, distributed environment/guid-oblivious algorithm Third, fix-up

Multiphase Algorithm
First, passive resister net Second, distributed environment/guid-oblivious algorithm Third, fix-up

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Algorithms Scale

Distributed Localization

Scales sublinearly with diagonal of ensemble

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Next Step, Create Network

Use simple local rules to form hierarchy 10 line program does this! Local only decisions Global effect

Getting There From Here

Goal: Robust ensemble of millions of catoms
Claytronics Design Principles No Moving Parts Local Control No Static Power

time
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Proposal for 3D
Dimensions Weight power Locomotive mechanism

Scaling of Claytronics
Macro >1 cm 10s gr <2 Watts Programmable magnets Micro >1 mm 100s mg 10s mW Electrostatics Nano <10 microns <1 mg 10s nW Aerosol

asic

Electromagnets Adhesion mechanism Nanofiber adhesives Magnets Manufacturing methods Conventional manufacturing and assembly Low $$$/catom Micro/Nanofabrication and micro-assembly High $/catom
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Catom diameter 44mm 20mm 10mm

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AmpTurns 260 150 250 150

Power (W) 10 3.3 6.6 2.8

Force (mN) 450 78 50 33

Weight (mN) 6420 192 24 24

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Programmable nanofiber adhesives

Molecular surface adhesion and covalent bonds Chemically directed selfassembly and fabrication High Millicents/catom
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Resolution Cost
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FEM simulation: Flux 150 A-Turns 10mm Catom

10mm

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What about the software?

Programming Models Distributed Planning Networking OS One example: Motion planning

Motion Planning Challenges

Large Number of Catoms ( ~ 100k+) No central planner Physical Limitations
Maximum torque Center of gravity Structural stability

Power/network connectivity Inaccuracies/failures

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Hole Flow Methods

Based on concept from moving tile puzzles or semiconductor physics Planning is scale-independent Three primitives
move create destroy

Motion Planning with Holes

Create raises contour

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Motion Planning with Holes

Create raises contour Destroy lowers contour Holes circulate freely through structure (Brownian motion/gas molecules)

Motion Planning with Holes

Create raises contour Destroy lowers contour Holes circulate freely through structure (Brownian motion/gas molecules)

Grow

Grow

shrink
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shrink
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Keeping it local and smooth

Hole motion based on local rules How do we control the global effect?

Effect of criticality smoothing

Use ideas from self-organized criticality to do local Collapsing/smoothing

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Making a shape

Claytronics & Pario

Open up an entire new application space
Antennas Design Entertainment Interaction Rescue Metal Man (Programmable Antennas) (100x protein model) (interactive clay) (telepario) (paramedic on demand) (fault tolerant robotics)

Vehicle for studying CS problem of the future: How do you design, program, maintain, and use a billion component system?
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Claytronics
Open up an entire new application space Vehicle for studying CS problem of the future: How do you design, program, maintain, and use a billion component system? Our Approach:

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The Ensemble Axiom Make scaling work for us Exploit scale invariance Design for scalability in both number & size: Millions of Micron-scale catoms
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