The termite, typically reviled as the wood-eating nemesis of buildings and homes, has ironically inspired a new batch of construction robots. The automated machines, each about the size of a small brick, can work as a team to build a predefined structure — without a leader or step-by-step instructions, as termites are thought to do.
Instead of communicating with one another or following a central command, the robots coordinate their actions by assessing what work has been done and adding to it. So, say, the first robot puts down a block. As it leaves the site, another senses the block’s location. Based on this information, as well as knowledge about the end product, it puts its load on top of the first.
Such a process keeps going — ideally with many robots toiling, to finish the job faster — until the structure is complete. This decentralized method of construction is similar to how the termite is thought to create towering nests.
“Around here, you hear about termites destroying buildings,” said study author and Harvard University computer scientist Justin Werfel. “But in Africa and Australia, they are known for building enormous, complicated mounds of soil.”
These oddly shaped towers can be as tall as 40 feet — about the equivalent of a three-story building. And while they may look like big piles of dirt, their simple exterior hides a complex network of ever-evolving tunnels and chambers. Some biologists even think they provide the colony with air conditioning and atmosphere control.
Werfel and his colleagues wanted to use robotics to harness the power of stigmergy, a process in which agents communicate indirectly by sensing and modifying the immediate world around them.
“They’re all independent, with each termite doing what it wants to,” he said. “It’s not like they’re getting assigned instructions by the queen; they are just reacting to what they encounter.”& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; /p>
He envisions potential applications for his easily programmable team of robots to work in places where sending humans would be dangerous and expensive — underwater or on Mars, for instance. Or using robots for tedious tasks, such as building levies with sandbags.