Dr. James McLurkin heads the fall Distinguished Speaker Series at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi on Oct. 18 in the Performing Arts Center. He will be bringing 12 examples of his subject along with him to demonstrate. Courtesy photos
Ants, bees, wasps and termites have been doing it for millions of years. Amazon does it in its warehouses today. With the right software, just about any new car on the road can do it, too. “It” is the future of robots and the subject of the Distinguished Speaker Series on Oct. 18 at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
Dr. James McLurkin and 12 of his research robots will demonstrate why a thousand robots are better than one when tasks are too dull or dangerous for humans.
“We all know about the Ds of robotics: Dangerous, Dirty and Dull,” McLaren said in a 2015 podcast interview on Robohub.org. “My work is about the fourth D: Distribution.”
Distributing tasks across multiple robots greatly multiples the scope and range of tasks a single robot can do. Swarms of dozens, hundreds or thousands of robots can conduct search-and-rescue across large geographic areas, whether underwater, through forests or in rubble.
Swarmbots also can be used to move large objects with one group working on the heavy lifting while another group precedes the object, calculating the size of doorways and the best route there.
“The way they do it is distributive,” McLaren continued. “There’s no one brain or leader figuring it out.”
Which is where insects come in. McLaren has been studying the behavior of ants and bees, which perform individual tasks as a collective. He gave as examples building a house with parallel operations where plumbing, drywall and electrical wiring could all be done simultaneously.
“Robots are best at things where it’s too dangerous for people to do it,” he said. “So, you don’t need robots to build a house in Delaware, but what about building a house on Mars?”
Swarms are already in use today, McLaren said. Amazon uses robots to gather products in warehouses for human workers to ship to consumers. Most new cars now on the road have everything they need to become swarmbots that could redirect traffic around accidents and dangerous road conditions. All they need is the software.
McLurkin starts the Distinguished Speaker Series at the Island University at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, with a free demonstration for students from elementary to university. Higher education students can pick up tickets at the Performing Arts Center box office on a first-come, first-served basis. Student IDs are required, and each student can pick up four tickets. All other students need to register online at dss.tamucc.edu/studentforum.
The evening lecture begins at 8 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. Ticket prices range from $30 to $150. Information is available at dss.tamucc.edu/box_office.html.
