Dancing, self-assembling robots and more

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Recently I discovered Gizmag and signed up for a subscription.  Today's email had this headline: "Self-assembling multi-copter demonstrates networked flight control." The article describes the self-assembling action thus:

The sequence starts with an arbitrary group of robots on the ground. Each robot has three omnidirectional wheels that allow it to rotate and drive in any direction. The robots are programmed to seek a common spot, for example, a brightly lit area. As the robots approach one another, one robot spins in a circle while the other drives around it in a pirouette. Interlocking tabs on the outside of the robots make a physical connection, while infrared light beams carry data between the modules.

Once all the modules in the area are connected, there is a brief calibration of sensors while nothing is moving, and then the entire group start their propellers in unison and take to the sky. Half the modules need to have clockwise propeller rotation, while the other half rotate counterclockwise, in order to cancel out torque.

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This illuminating statement was also in the article:

Professor D’Andrea has several similar groundbreaking projects on his very impressive resume. He is one of the founders of Kiva Robotics, the distributed mobile robots that help make Amazon.com warehouses efficient. A whole fleet of small robots go out into the warehouse and find product on shelves and bring it, shelf and all, to pickers – humans – who place items into boxes. The robots then take the shelves back to the warehouse. For efficiency, the most picked items are placed closest to the packers, making the warehouse self-organized for speed.

I was unable to find any information about the size of the self-assembling robots.  They look like 5-inch computer fans.

Another article asked "Could graphene switches lead to 100-times faster internet?." The answer is yes.  In the reading you'll get a nice description of  how a doped semiconductor works.
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And then there's the orange retro telephone -- "Retro telephone gets 21st century update."  It offers "rotating lights and sound effects during dialing."

No, I'm not an employee of Gizmag, just like to see innovative ideas.  The idea of self-assembling robots is a little scary, though....shades of Skynet!

-- Marge