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MICROROBOTICS INVENTOR WINS $30,000
STUDENT PRIZE FOR INVENTIVENESS FROM LEMELSON-MIT PROGRAM
Using Natural Behavior to Advance Scientific
Goals
CAMBRIDGE, MA (February 26, 2003) — The Lemelson-MIT Program
announced today that Long Island, N.Y. native James McLurkin has
been selected as the recipient of its ninth annual $30,000 MIT Student
Prize for inventiveness. McLurkin, a 30-year-old MIT graduate student
pursuing a degree in Computer Science, was selected by the judging
panel for his initiative, creativity and extraordinary inventiveness.
McLurkin is a daring innovator who has helped to push the frontiers
of microrobotics. He has invented the world's smallest self-contained
autonomous robots, measuring a little over one inch per side, and
is currently working on constructing the largest fleet of autonomous
robots that have ever worked together to carry out cooperative,
real-world tasks.
As part of his doctoral research, McLurkin is developing algorithms
and techniques for programming 'swarms' of autonomous robots. The
swarm robots are programmed to interact in ways that mimic the behavior
of bees, such as their abilities to cluster, disperse, follow and
orbit. By simulating the complex interactions of bee societies,
McLurkin's robots are programmed to accomplish individual tasks
that support the collective goal of the group.
"James is a clever and inspired inventor," said Rodney
A. Brooks, Director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory,
who has worked closely with McLurkin. In a letter of recommendation
for the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, Brooks said, "In the future,
the world will be full of teams of mobile robots and they will all
trace their ancestry to those developed by James McLurkin while
still a student at MIT. He is fully deserving of this prestigious
award."
Fascinated with the process of invention since the age of seven,
McLurkin spent much of his childhood reconstructing and enhancing
toys and electronic devices. Before he graduated from high school,
McLurkin already had programmed his own video games, dismantled
and rebuilt parts of his BMX™ bicycle, assembled a customized
computer, and designed and built two robots. Influenced by his parents'
love of nature, McLurkin also began to develop a keen interest in
exploring and learning from the principles of nature. Now, an aspiring
world-class inventor, McLurkin seeks to apply his engineering prowess
and love of nature to answer questions like, "How do you get
20,000 robots to detect land mines?"
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Robotic Ants
A firm believer that microrobotics should begin with the study
of natural phenomena, McLurkin decided to focus his MIT undergraduate
thesis project on simulating the behavior of an ant colony using
twelve cubic-inch robots. While working on the project, he stored
a large container of ants on his desk to study the way they interact,
communicate and perform tasks. McLurkin programmed his robotic 'ants'
to respond to their environment, enabling them to hunt for food,
pass messages to one another, and even play tag. "Understanding
nature is the key to unlocking the secrets of intelligence,"
McLurkin states.
Swarm Robots
Recognizing the enormous potential in tasks his robots could accomplish
if they could self-organize, McLurkin later expanded his research
to focus on developing distributed computing techniques that enable
the 'swarms' of robots to act as a group as well as individually.
Swarm robots are networked to travel in a fleet. Once a discovery
is made by a robot, that robot will signal the group. The swarm
can then unite around the discovery and set forth to accomplish
the task it was programmed to achieve.
As Lead Scientist at iRobot in Somerville, MA, he managed a research
team that built more than 100 small robots equipped to communicate
with each other, compute their relative positions and utilize touch-sensing
for navigation. The swarm robots are four and a half inches per
side, making them 125 times larger and immensely more powerful than
his robotic ants. Now part of his doctoral thesis research, each
robot has bump sensors, light sensors, a self-charger, a radio modem
and an audio system. Eventually, they will be equipped with a food
sensor, trail sensors and a camera.
For a class project in 2002, McLurkin designed the Swarm Orchestra,
which is a group of 20-30 robots playing music together, spatially
organized so that robots with like instruments are centrally located.
By combining bee-like behaviors such as temporal synchronization
and clumping them into groups, McLurkin's robots can play a variety
of music.
McLurkin's ultimate goal is to construct thousands of swarm robots
with enough smarts to take on intricate tasks in difficult environments,
such as searching for land mines, rummaging through earthquake rubble
or even exploring Mars. top of page
Education is Key
In addition to his technical wizardry, McLurkin is dedicated to
teaching teens the importance and significance of invention, while
motivating them to get involved in the world of science. According
to McLurkin, "It is important that teens truly understand how
much fun and exciting inventing can be." Following his own
advice, McLurkin teaches college-preparatory classes, including
classes within the Saturday Engineering Enrichment and Discovery
Academy at MIT, with toys such as Lego™ bricks and model trains.
McLurkin earned his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering
from MIT and expects to complete his Ph.D. in Computer Science in
2006. Before returning to MIT for graduate school, he earned his
Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of
California, Berkeley.
McLurkin's success with his earlier project, the microrobotic ants,
is currently being showcased at the Museum of Science, Boston in
Invention at Play, a traveling exhibit sponsored by the
Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. Invention
at Play was developed by the Lemelson Center at the Smithsonian's
National Museum of American History in partnership with the Science
Museum of Minnesota and with support from The Lemelson Foundation
and the National Science Foundation. For more information on Invention
at Play, visit
http://www.si.edu/lemelson/centerpieces/iap/
Click here for more information on James McLurkin.
About the Lemelson-MIT Program
Based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge,
MA, the Lemelson-MIT Program was established in 1994 by the late
independent inventor Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife, Dorothy. The
Program's mission is to raise the stature of inventors and innovators
and to foster invention and innovation among young people. It accomplishes
this by celebrating inventor/innovator role models through outreach
activities and annual awards, including the world's largest for
invention — the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. The Lemelson-MIT
Program is funded by The Lemelson Foundation, which supports other
invention initiatives at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American
History, Hampshire College, the National Collegiate Inventors and
Innovators Alliance and the University of Nevada, Reno. For more
information about the Lemelson-MIT Program, please visit its newly
redesigned Web site at http://web.mit.edu/invent/
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