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<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2></FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT>From <A
href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/29/1827239&mode=thread&tid=134&tid=137&tid=160&tid=216">Slashdot</A>:
In an article named "Puckish robots pull together," Nature describes the work
done at the Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory (PRL) of the University of Southern
California on self-reconfigurable teams of robots. There, Wei-Min Shen and his
colleagues simulate the absence of gravity by creating a 2D representation of
space by using an 'air-hockey table.' With jets of air flow blowing on the
surface, the 30 cm-wide robots, working in pairs, evolve in a frictionless
environment, pick elements such as girders to assemble structures like if they
were in space. NASA will use these teams of autonomous robots to build space
systems like 10 km-long arrays of solar panels and other huge spatial
structures. You'll find more details, illustrations and references in this
overview.</DIV></BODY></HTML>