Programmable matter

Programmable matter is matter which has the ability to change its physical properties (shape, density, moduli, conductivity, optical properties, etc.) in a programmable fashion, based upon user input or autonomous sensing. Programmable matter is thus linked to the concept of a material which inherently has the ability to perform information processing.

History

Programmable matter is a term originally coined in 1991 by

In the early 1990s, there was a significant amount of work in reconfigurable modular robotics with a philosophy similar to programmable matter.[4]

As semiconductor technology, nanotechnology, and self-replicating machine technology have advanced, the use of the term programmable matter has changed to reflect the fact that it is possible to build an ensemble of elements which can be "programmed" to change their physical properties in reality, not just in simulation. Thus, programmable matter has come to mean "any bulk substance which can be programmed to change its physical properties."

In the summer of 1998, in a discussion on artificial atoms and programmable matter, Wil McCarthy and G. Snyder coined the term "quantum wellstone" (or simply "wellstone") to describe this hypothetical but plausible form of programmable matter. McCarthy has used the term in his fiction.

In 2002, Seth Goldstein and Todd Mowry started the claytronics project at Carnegie Mellon University to investigate the underlying hardware and software mechanisms necessary to realize programmable matter.

In 2004, the DARPA Information Science and Technology group (ISAT) examined the potential of programmable matter. This resulted in the 2005–2006 study "Realizing Programmable Matter", which laid out a multi-year program for the research and development of programmable matter.

In 2007, programmable matter was the subject of a DARPA research solicitation and subsequent program.^[5][6]

From 2016 to 2022, the ANR has funded several research programs coordinated by Julien Bourgeois and Benoit Piranda at the FEMTO-ST Institute, which is taking the lead in the Claytronics project initiated by Intel and Carnegie Mellon University.^[7]

Approaches

In one school of thought, the programming could be external to the material and might be achieved by the "application of light, voltage, electric or magnetic fields, etc." (

is a form of programmable matter. A second school of thought is that the individual units of the ensemble can compute and the result of their computation is a change in the ensemble's physical properties. An example of this more ambitious form of programmable matter is claytronics.

There are many proposed implementations of programmable matter. Scale is one key differentiator between different forms of programmable matter. At one end of the spectrum, reconfigurable modular robotics pursues a form of programmable matter where the individual units are in the centimeter size range.^[4][8][9] At the nanoscale end of the spectrum, there are a tremendous number of different bases for programmable matter, ranging from shape changing molecules

concept.

An important sub-group of programmable matter are robotic materials, which combine the structural aspects of a composite with the affordances offered by tight integration of sensors, actuators, computation, and communication,^[11] while foregoing reconfiguration by particle motion.

Examples

There are many conceptions of programmable matter, and thus many discrete avenues of research using the name. Below are some specific examples of programmable matter.

"Solid-liquid phase-change pumping"

Shape-changing and locomotion of solid objects are possible with solid-liquid phase change pumping.^[12] This approach allows deforming objects into any intended shape with sub-millimetre resolution and freely changing their topology.

"Simple"

These include materials that can change their properties based on some input, but do not have the ability to do complex computation by themselves.

Complex fluids

The physical properties of several complex fluids can be modified by applying a current or voltage, as is the case with

.

Metamaterials

Metamaterials are artificial

.

A further example of programmable -mechanical- metamaterial is presented by Bergamini et al.[13] Here, a pass band within the phononic bandgap is introduced, by exploiting variable stiffness of piezoelectric elements linking aluminum stubs to the aluminum plate to create a phononic crystal as in the work of Wu et al.^[14] The piezoelectric elements are shunted to ground over synthetic inductors. Around the resonance frequency of the LC circuit formed by the piezoelectric and the inductors, the piezoelectric elements exhibit near zero stiffness, thus effectively disconnecting the stubs from the plate. This is considered an example of programmable mechanical metamaterial.^[13]

In 2021, Chen et al. demonstrated a mechanical metamaterial whose unit cells can each store a binary digit analogous to a bit inside a hard disk drive.^[15] Similarly, these mechanical unit cells are programmed through the interaction between two electromagnetic coils in the Maxwell configuration, and an embedded magnetorheological elastomer. Different binary states are associated with different stress-strain response of the material.

Shape-changing molecules

An active area of research is in molecules that can change their shape, as well as other properties, in response to external stimuli. These molecules can be used individually or en masse to form new kinds of materials. For example,

Electropermanent magnets

An electropermanent magnet is a type of

They allow creating controllable permanent magnets where the magnetic effect can be maintained without requiring a continuous supply of electrical energy. For these reasons, electropermanent magnets are essential components of the research studies aiming to build programmable magnets that can give rise to self-building structures.[16]^[17]

Robotics-based approaches

Self-reconfiguring modular robotics

Self-reconfiguring modular robotics involves a group of basic robot modules working together to dynamically form shapes and create behaviours suitable for many tasks, similar to programmable matter. SRCMR aims to offer significant improvement to many kinds of objects or systems by introducing many new possibilities. For example: 1. Most important is the incredible flexibility that comes from the ability to change the physical structure and behavior of a solution by changing the software that controls modules. 2. The ability to self-repair by automatically replacing a broken module will make SRCMR solution incredibly resilient. 3. Reducing the environmental footprint by reusing the same modules in many different solutions. Self-reconfiguring modular robotics enjoys a vibrant and active research community.^[18]

Claytronics

Claytronics is an emerging field of

connect to other catoms to form different shapes.

Cellular automata

Cellular automata are a useful concept to abstract some of the concepts of discrete units interacting to give a desired overall behavior.

Quantum wells

Quantum wells can hold one or more electrons. Those electrons behave like

, but these are extremely weak. Because of their larger sizes, other properties are also widely different.

Synthetic biology

proteins

.

Synthetic biology is a field that aims to engineer cells with "novel biological functions."^[

See also

• Computronium
• Nanotechnology
• Self-assembly
• Smart material
• Smartdust
• Ubiquitous computing
• Universal Turing machine
• Utility fog

References

1. doi:10.1016/0167-2789(91)90296-L
   .
2. ISBN 9780521607605
   .
3. ^ "CAM8: a Parallel, Uniform, Scalable Architecture for Cellular Automata Experimentation". Ai.mit.edu. Retrieved 2013-04-10.
4. ^ ^{a b c} http://www.geocities.com/charles_c_22191/temporarypreviewfile.html?1205202563050 ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ "DARPA research solicitation". Archived from the original on July 15, 2009.
6. ^ DARPA Strategic Thrusts: Programmable Matter Archived December 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
7. ^ "Hardware and software for creating programmable matter – ProgrammableMatter". anr.fr.
8. ^ Research
9. ^ "Mark Yim - GRASP Lab @ Penn". www.robotics.upenn.edu. Archived from the original on 16 November 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
10. ^ ^{a b} "UCLA Chemistry and Biochemistry". Stoddart.chem.ucla.edu. Archived from the original on 2004-10-12. Retrieved 2013-04-10.
11. S2CID 206563151
    .
12. doi:10.1002/adfm.202307105
    .
13. ^
    S2CID 23402889
    .
14. ISSN 0003-6951
    .
15. S2CID 231665050
    .
16. ^ ^{a b} Deyle, Travis (2010). "Electropermanent Magnets: Programmable Magnets with Zero Static Power Consumption Enable Smallest Modular Robots Yet". HiZook. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
17. ^ Hardesty, Larry (2012). "Self-sculpting sand". MIT. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
18. ^ (Yim et al. 2007, pp. 43–52) An overview of recent work and challenges
19. PMID 25229329
    .

Further reading

• Goldstein, Seth Copen; Campbell, Jason; Mowry, Todd C. (June 2005). "Programmable Matter". IEEE Computer. 38 (6): 99–101.
  S2CID 17346523
  .
• McCarthy, Wil (2006). "Programmable Matter FAQ". Nature. 407 (6804): 569.
  S2CID 5242445
  .
• McCarthy, Wil (2003). Hacking Matter: Levitating Chairs, Quantum Mirages, and the Infinite Weirdness of Programmable Atoms. New York: Basic Books.
  ISBN 978-0-465-04428-3
  .
• Yim, Mark; Shen, Wei-Min; Salemi, Behnam; Rus, Daniela; Moll, Mark; Lipson, Hod; Klavins, Eric;
  S2CID 11100988
  .
• Thalamy, Pierre; Piranda, Benoit; Bourgeois, Julien (December 2021). "Engineering efficient and massively parallel 3D self-reconfiguration using sandboxing, scaffolding and coating". Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 146 (18): 103875.
  doi:10.1016/j.robot.2021.103875
  .
• Piranda, Benoit; Bourgeois, Julien (2021). "Datom: A Deformable modular robot for building self-reconfigurable programmable matter". 15th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems.
  arXiv:2005.03402
  .

External links

• "DARPA (US Military) Programmable Matter Thrust". Afcea International. 26 May 2009.
• "The Programmable Matter Consortium". 20 April 2022.