Ulrich, Lawrence. “Meet Blueswarm, a Smart School of Robotic Fish.” IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News, 29 Jan. 2021, 13:00 GMT, spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/blueswarm-robotic-fish.
Article title:
Meet Blueswarm, a Smart School of Robotic Fish
Photo taken by Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
My summary of the article:
The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering were inspired by the movement of schooling fish – fish that display beautiful and synchronized movements as a cast of more than a thousand. This led to the researchers creating 'Blueswarm', a collection of robots that could not only sync their movements like a biological fish, but also interact accordingly with other robots of the same kind in the absence of external control. The researchers believe that the research they are conducting with 'Blueswarm' could progress not only underwater robots but also other vehicles that require decentralized locomotion and organization such as self-driving cars and robotic space exploration (mars rovers, etc). Each robot that belongs to 'Blueswarm' (called 'Bluedot') contains three blue LED lights, a lithium polymer battery, a pair of cameras, a Raspberry Pi computer, and four controllable fins within a 3D printed hull. The algorithm applied to each Bluedot detects and processes LED lights from other robots to calculate information about their movement (such as location, distance, direction, etc).
With such algorithm in place Blueswarm could self-operate and mimic multiple fishlike behaviors, such as aggregation (forming clusters), dispersal (spreading), and clockwise synchronization. Blueswarm also succeeded in a real-life version of "Finding Nemo", basically a search-and-rescue mission of finding robots missing from the swarm.
The researchers mention that it was particularly more difficult to create Blueswarm than, for example, a robotic construction crew inspired by the behavior of termites because those projects involved interaction between robots in merely two-dimensions, whereas Blueswarm involves interactions between robots underwater, a three-dimensional environment.
My response to the article:
From individual-level fish swarm organization technology to self-driving cars and space exploration. The researchers give a great explanation as to how Bluswarm could be used for the further progression of such complicated and important technological advancements such as self-driving cars. Whether this would be the case is still a mystery, but I still believe that the approach that the researchers are taking towards advancing individual-level 'group' organization technologies is very interesting and innovative. The researchers' other projects such as the robot termites and "Kilobots" are also related to the same technology of creating robots that could interact with each other in an individual level, and yet achieving a shared, common goal. And since a lot of animals species including swarming fishes and termites are indeed representative of this behavior, I see the approach that the researchers at SEAS and the Wyss Institute are taking as extremely compelling, and, generally enthralling to read about.
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