Call for Papers
Workshop on Nanosensors:
Self-Organization and Swarm Robotics
Third International Conference on Nano-Networks (Nano-Net 2008)
Radisson Hotel
September 14, 2008
OVERVIEW
Nanosensors
are slated to revolutionize several fields including medicine, harsh
environment sensing and chip fabrication. This is an important field that
assimilates technologies and concepts from multiple domains such as physics,
chemistry, and engineering. Nanosensors however are small, weak, and fragile
and lack the power to work independently due to limited power and communication
range. However, by self-assembling into larger nano-structures or complex
systems, they have the ability to exhibit sophisticated behavior. Nature
abounds with several instances where seemingly simple organisms self-organize
to exhibit sophisticated emergent behavior, also called swarm intelligence. For
instance, an ant is quite a simple animal whose behavioral repertoire is limited
from 10 to 40 elementary behaviors. However, in groups, they can exhibit
sophisticated collective behavior where there are clear divisions of labor.
Some ants collect food while others take care of the eggs, repair the nest, or
protect the anthill against threats, while the queen lays the eggs. None of the
animals grasp the big picture, but the entire colony collectively contributes
to its success. The secret lies in self-organization and swarm intelligence
where each organism follows simple rules based on local information from their
neighbors. Study of this area can provide insights that can help us manage
complex systems such as those used for turbine design, truck routing, and robot
coordination. It is necessary to understand such self-organization in the
context of nanosensors to take advantage of the wide spectrum of applications
where nanosensors can be deployed. One of the prime applications of nanosensors
is robotics where miniature robots that can perform a variety of industrial and
medical, and environmental applications. Currently, such robots are limited due
to size constraints; however, it will soon be possible to develop nano-robots
that have a size in the millimeter and sub-millimeter range. The difficulty in
achieving this miniaturization is primarily due to the integration capabilities
of power sources, communication, motion, and actuation. Over time, however,
these miniature robots will have several advantages: increased flexibility,
functionality, robustness, and decreased cost. These advancements will lead to
realization of the concept of distributed self-organized colonies (swarms) of
robots that can perform complex tasks that humans have difficulty in
performing. Examples of such tasks include, monitoring in harsh conditions such
as exhaust of turbines, and environmental conditions in toxic environments.
This year’s workshop brings together the expertise of researchers from the
fields of nano-robotics and swarm intelligence for the purposes of sharing and
generating ideas that can bring together advances in these fields to improve
nanosensor network research. The workshop will have specific deliverables. An
individual will be designated to take notes at the workshop and results from
the workshop will be collected and integrated into a document for publication.
The
workshop will address several pointed issues, including:
·
The
reason swarm simulation software (e.g., Swarm and RePast) has failed to provide
significant insight into emergent behavior of such systems
·
The
merits and demerits of existing hardware platforms for automated swarm
inspection
·
Standards
that are needed to move small-scale swarm inspection into mainstream use
·
The
role of communication in swarm behavior
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
If you
are interested in participating in the workshop, please submit papers to Sanjay
Goel (goel@albany.edu) by July 15. The papers should be 5-10 pages long in the
areas described above. Please format the papers to the IEEE double column
format.
WORKSHOP CHAIRS:
Sanjay
Goel:
Stephen
F. Bush: GE
INVITED SPEAKERS
|
Jessica Flak (Santa Fe Institute) |
Michael
Carpenter (CNSE, UAlbany, SUNY) |
|
Jonathan
Bachrach (Massachusetts
Institute of Tech.) |
Dinos
Mavroidis (North Eastern University) |
|
Aristides Requicha ( |
Nikolaus
Correll (Massachusetts Institute of Tech.) |
|
John
Barker ( |
Metin
Sitti ( |