Stijn Van Iersel, Martijn Lammers, Roel Smeets, Paul Staal
Protei
has as a goal to create a vessel that can “live” autonomously and that
can perform tasks as a swarm. In this description, we found similarities
with the properties a species has. We are, at least for our project,
proposing to approach our activities in the Protei project as if we are
designing a newt species.Viewing Protei as a species provides us with
design opportunities (or research questions).
Here,
we will set the properties apart that the new species should possess
and how these properties will, according to us, apply to Protei. We do
not want to base these properties on any specific sort of species, but
more on general aspects of nature to have a framework on which we can
build up our Protei version and through which we can find opportunities
to develop all of Protei’s functionalities. This framework is dynamic
and the properties inside it can therefore be changed and new properties
can be added.
Firstly,
individuals get born. In the case of a Protei, this will happen through
an interested contributor, building their own Protei. The design
opportunity for this aspect lies in how the information of how to build a
protei will be obtained. Designing a building kit is an interesting
opportunity. Others are to create a better, clearer community where
information about Protei is distributed. This way of working will create
a ecosystem of similar but not identical Protei individuals and
biodiversity may be a positive side effect.
The species called Protei can:
Reproduce.
A
new Protei will be born through the open source community. Interested
“parents” can download plans or buy a kit with which they can build
their own Protei. To ensure compatibility between different “breeds” of
Protei, a certain standard will need to be set.
Design
opportunities: development of a Protei building kit, development of
open source community (a clear communication channel) including
standards.
Respond to stimuli.
A
protei responds to its environment. For example to cope with different
wind directions when sailing, to objects blocking it’s path and to other
Protei with which it is hunting for oil.
Design
opportunities: What sensors should Protei have? Designing behavioral
rules to which Protei should act, designing the learning algorithm
inside protei (from what should it learn and from what should it not
learn?)
Evolve
As
many species Protei will evolve over time. This will happen through
development of the Protei concept by the open source community.
Design opportunity: create a evolution road map, development of the open source community.
Show collective behaviour
Being able to show collective behavior can have multiple advantages;
By interacting with each other Protei can share information on winds or oil spills (aka food).
With
cooperation for protection, multiple Protei can, for example, stick
together to protect themselves better from a storm. Together, Protei may
be able to establish more efficient locomotion and quicker oil
absorption.
Opportunity: Design a communication standard for communication between individual Protei.
Live in symbiosis
Being
able to live in symbiosis with other organisms. In this case Protei
will for example help birds who are covered in oil. While this is a
rather extreme example, it might be more realistic to have Protei
co-evolve. This can happen between different species of Protei (they
can, for example, deliver software updates to each other. But maybe also
between Protei and “natural” species.
Next step: Design briefs.
Based on these design opportunities each group member has written their own design brief.
Roel Smeets’ design brief
The
design opportunity for me is to design and test the behavior of the
drones. How will they communicate and how will they collect the oil? By
creating visual models I want to test what methods are effective. These
models should be based on existing technology to provide me with
helpful data. If I base my model on futuristic and non-existing
technologies it cannot be implemented within the Protei project.
Furthermore, I think that the environment as well as the behavior of
the drones has a great impact on the design of the drones. It will be an
opportunity for me to use my designed behavior and environmental the
aspects to create a design for the drones of the Protei species.
Activities
List of proposed activities during the project:
- Research into species and swarms
- Analyses of environment
- Ideation of swarm behavior
- Concept of collective swarm behavior
- Testing of behavior
- Improving behavior (if necessary)
- Physical design of species
- Physical prototype of swarm behavior
Goals
At
the midterm presentations I want to present my research and my first
ideas of group behavior. In the presentation I will show a visual of the
environment in which the drones will be placed. This visual will
include all the important aspects of the ecology. It displays the flora
of the region, the fauna and also the influence of humans in the
environment. The research I did on swarm behavior will be summarized and
presented. The main point I will hope to receive feedback on is my
ideas for swarm behavior. So this will be the key part of the
presentation.
For
the final exhibition I want to make a visual model that accurately
displays a Protei swarm cleaning up oil spills. In the most ideal
situation I will also have a small scale physical swarm that can execute
swarm behavior on a small scale. Using the data a gathered about the
swarms and the environment I will make a design for the drones. This
design will be based on the tasks that the drone has to accomplish, the
environment and the swarm behavior. It will not be restricted by current
technology or feasibility.
Paul Staal’s design brief
The
general aim of the team is to look at the Protei living together as a
species. A species that can reproduce, respond to stimuli, evolve, show
collective behaviour and is able to live in symbiosis with other
species.
My
personal direction for this project is to get an understanding of how
the boats communicate with each other. Growing up on a farm, I’ve always
been around animals and I want to research their communication and
integrate it in the communication of Protei. By looking at how animals
communicate with each other to hunt or to prevent from being hunted
upon, I want to create a ‘language’ for the Protei that is stripped down
to its essentials. They should only communicate if they have to, so
there should be as few rules as possible to ‘hunt down’ the oil-spills.
Goals
For
the midterm presentation my goal is to finish research on animal
behavior and make a computer model in Processing in which the Protei
already have a basic intelligence to communicate where to find the oil
and absorb it.
Stijn van Iersel & Martijn Lammers’s design brief
To
suit the Next Nature theme the project is in, the main focus of the
project will be looking at wild robots as a species of its own. This
focus will be applied on the client Protei, there sailing boats will be
seen as a species that reproduces, responds to stimuli, evolves, shows
collective behaviour and is able to live in symbiosis with other
species.
At
this point the general understanding is that the protei species will
reproduce itself by people that buy parts or a set/kit of parts (could
be partially pre-assembled). The assembled product should be able to
find its way to a swarm autonomously, allowing users to put it into the
water anywhere. To reach a realistic design in these aspects, attention
needs to be paid to compatibility and affordability.
The
design opportunity in this is to design a basic boat assembly with kits
available worldwide. The boat and kit itself need to be designed in a
way that the final assembly will be very simple and low cost for all
users. When designing the kit the functionality needs be designed to be
pre programmed. This is necessary to assure compatibility with the whole
protei swarm. After designing the physical and operational part there
is also a marketing/ business area that is to be designed. To give a
clear image of what actions are needed to accomplish the reproduction of
the Protei species business models are also needed.
Goals Stijn:
Midterm; General Boat design + Business model
Final; Specified Boat design + Kit design + Business model/analysis
Other design opportunities that add to the ones above are:
- Way to follow your own Protei robot / personal bonding.
- New born boats sharing their new software to update the existing swarm.
Goals Martijn:
Midterm: General boat design of an RC Protei boat, with at least multiple parts of this boat prototyped.
Activities:
Research boat design (involve expert)
Build and test parts of the boat that can later be put together to form a complete boat.
Final: RC boat design that is semi autonomous and of which a kit for home building is available.
Activities:
Assemble
all previously design boat parts into one complete boat. Which is
semi-autonomous, this means the user will be in direct control of
steering the boat (determining the course) and the other aspects of
sailing, such as adjusting the sails, will be done by a sensor-actuator
system on board of the boat.
The
kit will be designed focused on it being reproducible through websites
such as instructables, this means drawings + explanation of all the
parts. In this phase I want to involve the instructables community very
much as they will be the target group of this kit.
