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Advances in Applied Self-Organizing Systems pp 179–208Cite as

Distributed Control of Microscopic Robots in Biomedical Applications

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Part of the book series: Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing ((AI&KP))

Abstract

To illustrate controls for large collections of microscopic robots, this chapter considers a prototypical diagnostic task of finding a small chemical source in a multicellular organism via the circulatory system. To do so, we first review plausible capabilities for microscopic robots and the physical constraints due to operation in fluids at low Reynolds number, diffusion-limited sensing and thermal noise from Brownian motion. We then discuss techniques for evaluating the behavior of large collections of robots, and examine a specific task scenario. The emphasis here is on feasible performance with plausible biophysical parameters and robot capabilities. Evaluation metrics include minimizing hardware capabilities to simplify fabrication and ensuring

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Acknowledgements

I have benefited from discussions with Philip J. Kuekes and David Sretavan.

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  1. Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Tad Hogg

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  1. Tad Hogg
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Correspondence to Tad Hogg .

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  1. ICT Centre, CSIRO, Marsfield, New South Wales, Australia

    Mikhail Prokopenko

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Hogg, T. (2013). Distributed Control of Microscopic Robots in Biomedical Applications. In: Prokopenko, M. (eds) Advances in Applied Self-Organizing Systems. Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5113-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5113-5_8

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