CLAYTRONICS

THE “PROGRAMMABLE MATTER”

BY

K.Keerthi, Nikhita Agarwal,

III/I, IT, III/I, IT,
MIST MIST
keertikambhampati837@gmail.com agarwal.nikhita28@gmail.com
Abstract our lives—by having them integrated into
the very artifacts around us and allowing
them to interact with the world. Claytronics
makes it possible.
Current research is exploring the
potential of modular reconfigurable Here in this paper:
robotics and the complex software We will be going through with the parts,
necessary to control the “shape changing” functioning and goals of Claytronics.
robots. Imagine a technology that would let
you create objects. A powerful medium
formed by billions of microscopic robots
each computationally build object which is
interactive. Bring your ideas to the table
and put its shape, form and colour. When
you are dynamically out, you can touch it,
feel it and move it in your hands.

Claytronics is an abstract future

concept that combines nanoscale robotics
and computer science to create individual
nanometer-scale computers Claytronics
deals with programmable matter that
transforms your imagination into reality.
Claytronics will be a test‐bed for solving
some of the most challenging problems we
face today: how to build complex massively
distributed dynamic systems.
Claytronics has the potential to greatly
affect many areas of daily life, such as
telecommunication, human-computer
interfaces and entertainment. It is also a
step towards truly integrant computers into
I. Introduction – Storage
– Energy
"Claytronics" is an emerging field of
– Sensing & communication
engineering concerning reconfigurable
• Which can be programmed to form
nanoscale robots ('claytronic atoms', or
interesting dynamic shapes and
catoms) designed to form much larger scale
configurations.
machines or mechanisms. Also known as
"programmable matter", the catoms will be
sub-millimeter computers that will
Claytronics:
eventually have the ability to move around,
communicate with other computers, change
• Bring matter under computer control
color, and electrostatically connect to other
i.e., programmable matter
catoms to form different shapes. The forms
• Path to the future
made up of catoms could morph into nearly
– 1 micron cubed catom
any object, even replicas of human beings
– Creation of useful artifacts
for virtual meetings. In words of Goldstein
• Create an enticing system that explores all
“programmable matter refers to a
the computer science issues of
technology that will allow one to control and
programmable matter
manipulate three-dimensional physical
• Basis for Synthetic Reality/Future Robots
artifacts. In other words, programmable
matter will allow us to take a step beyond
virtual reality, to synthetic reality, an
II. A Claytronic Atom: Catom
environment in which all the objects in a
user’s environment are physically realized.” With claytronics, millions of tiny individual
devices -- "claytronic atoms" or "catoms" --
would assemble into macro-scale objects,
Programmable matter:
connecting and disconnecting as they move.
The current large proof-of-concept catoms
• An ensemble of material that contains
(measuring 4.4 centimeters) connect and
sufficient
move via magnets, much like the
– Local computation
"replicating" robots devised by Cornell last
– Actuation
month; later versions, operating at scales
where electromagnetic or electrostatic attain the shape the user desires. As we see
connections would be hard (or impossible) in the figure below, the catom is not of a
to control, will likely use something akin to large size but of a radius of around 44mms
the non-sticky adhesive found on geckos' and a height of 36mms.
feet. The catoms could have LCD or LED
surfaces able to produce a faintly glowing
image, so that what appeared to be a person
(say) made of millions of tiny micro-robots
would actually look like the person. That's
important to Mowry and Goldstein -- they
see claytronics as a way of being multiple
places at once.

Parts of a catom

IV. Working

Catoms

III. Parts of a catom

It’s important that we know each and

every part of a catom for better
understanding of how these catoms are
adhered to each other and that how they

We humans are still struggle to reconcile
primal instincts with pure intellect and hope
to figure out some day how the Universe
works. Along the intricate path of supreme
knowledge we come across visionary
concepts that may change our understanding
of the world in a radical manner. Things like
these happened with the introduction of
Einstein’s theory of relativity or the advent
of the computer age and it’s bound to
happen again with the imminent invasion of
the programmable matter.
Rattner explained that programmable
matter would consist of tiny glass spheres
with processing power and photovoltaic
components for generating electricity to run
the tiny circuitry. These particles called
catoms would move relative to one another
via electrostatic. What you see in the
picture are just visible-scale replicas. The
catoms are supposed to be only a few
micrometers wide.
Just think of it as "the ultimate form
of digital printing," only this time we’re
talking about 3D printing. "You literally
could make an object of any imaginable
shape, or design, and simply 'hit the print
command' and the matter would take that
shape,” Rattner revealed in an interview for
ZDnet. Rattner reminded us that the great
Sci-Fi writer Arthur C. Clarke once said that
“any technology sufficiently advanced is
indistinguishable from magic.” “And that's
what programmable matter is – it's a
technology so advanced it might as well be
magic,” Rattner said.
V.A foresight of Claytronics
You being a designer of a car want to
show your design of the car and what if you
have claytronics as a tool? Now let us see
the magic claytronics does with its great
feature of virtual reality. Let us now see few
of the pictures as to how all this can be done
with very great ease.
 Hope you have made changes you need and
now want to change the colour??? It’s
simple too…..

Short of size????????? Increase it simply

with your hand movements as

Changed to the colour of your wish??? Yup,

now want to see the inner parts of the
exhibit??? Then,

Satisfied with the size???????? I hope yes.

Now want to make any changes???? Then,

Feel great right??? Now let us see the

goals of this claytronics project.

VI. Goals

One of the primary goals of

claytronics is to form the basis for a new
media type, pario. Pario, a logical extension
of audio and video, is a media type used to
reproduce moving 3D objects in the real which exploits inter-module communication
world. The claytronics project (AKA and computation without requiring self-
Synthetic reality) is to understand and configuration.
develop the hardware and software
This technology is still in its infancy,
necessary to create programmable matter, a
but promises the potential of affected
material which can be programmed to form
humanity quite profoundly in future
dynamic three dimensional shapes which
decades.
can interact in the physical world and
visually take on an arbitrary appearance. …..

Realizing the vision of claytronics

through the self-assembly of millions of
catoms into synthetic reality will have a
profound effect on the experience of users of
electronic information. This promise of
claytronic technology has become possible
because of the ever increasing speeds of
computer processing predicted in Moore's
Law.

VII. Conclusion

As an integral part of our

philosophy, the Claytronics Project seeks the
contributions of scholars and researchers
worldwide who are dedicating their efforts
to the diverse scientific and engineering
studies related to this rich field of
nanotechnology and computer science. One
of the novel applications of the Claytronics
project is 3D printing and fax machine