[Type the document CLAYTRONICS subtitle] By- Index 1. Introduction 2 2. Major Goals 3 3. Programmable Matter 4 4. Synthetic reality 7 5. Ensemble Principle 7 6. C-Atoms 8 7. Pario 9 8. Algorithms 10 9. Scaling and Designing of C-atoms 12 10. Hardware 13 11. Software 15 12. Application of Claytronics 16 13. Summary 17 14. Bibliography 18 Page | 1 CLAYTRONICS INTRODUCTION: In the past 50 years, computers have shrunk from room-size mainframes to lightweight handhelds. This fantastic miniaturization is primarily the result of high-volume Nano scale manufacturing. While this technology has predominantly been applied to logic and memory, it’s now being used to create advanced micro-electromechanical systems using both top-down and bottom-up processes. One possible outcome of continued progress in high-volume Nano scale assembly is the ability to inexpensively produce millimeter-scale units that integrate computing, sensing, actuation, and locomotion mechanisms. A collection of such units can be viewed as a form of programmable matter. Claytronics is an abstract future concept that combines Nano scale robotics and computer science to create individual nanometer-scale computers called claytronic atoms, or catoms, which can interact with each other to form tangible 3-D objects that a user can interact with. This idea is more broadly referred to as programmable matter. Claytronics is a form a programmable matter that takes the concept of modular robots to a new extreme. The concept of modular robots has been around for some time. Previous approaches to modular robotics sought to create an ensemble of tens or even hundreds of small autonomous robots which could, through coordination, achieve a global effect not possible by any single unit. For Example: Claytronics might be used in telepresense to mimic, with high-fidelity and in three-dimensional solid form, the look, feel, and motion of the person at the other end of the telephone call Page | 2 Major Goals: Use large numbers of nano-scale robots to create synthetic reality. The goal of the claytronics project (AKA Synthetic reality) is to understand and develop the hardware and software necessary to create programmable matter. 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 world. The long term goal of our project is to render physical artifacts with such high fidelity that our senses will easily accept the reproduction for the original. When this goal is achieved we will be able to create an environment, which we call synthetic reality, in which a user can interact with computer generated artifacts as if they were the real thing. Synthetic reality has significant advantages over virtual reality or augmented reality. Other people and objects created entirely from nano-scale robots. Page | 3 WHAT IS PROGRAMMABLE MATTER ? A material which can be programmed to form dynamic three dimensional shapes which can interact in the physical world and visually take on an arbitrary appearance. Claytronics refers to an ensemble of individual components, called catoms— for claytronic atoms—that can move in three dimensions (in relation to other catoms), adhere to other catoms to maintain a 3D shape, and compute state information (with possible assistance from other catoms in the ensemble). Programmable matter is any bulk substance whose physical properties can be adjusted in real time through the application of light, voltage, electric or magnetic fields, etc. Primitive forms may allow only limited adjustment of one or two traits (e.g., the "photodarkening" or "photochromic" materials found in light-sensitive sunglasses), but there are theoretical forms which, using known principles of electronics, should be capable of emulating a broad range of naturally occurring materials, or of exhibiting unnatural properties which cannot be produced by other means. WHAT IS PROGRAMMABLE MATTER COMPOSED OF? Programmable matter is composed of manmade objects too small to perceive directly with the human senses. This may include microscopic or nanoscopic machines, but more typically refers to fixed arrangements of conductors, semiconductors, and insulators designed to trap electrons in artificial atoms. Single-electron transistors, a form of quantum dot, were first proposed by A.A. Likharev in 1984 and constructed by Gerald Dolan and Theodore Fulton at Bell Laboratories in 1987. The first semiconductor SET, a type of quantum dot sometimes referred to as a designer atom, was invented by Marc Kastner and John Scott-Thomas at MIT in 1989. The term "artificial atom" was coined by Kastner in 1993. However, Wil McCarthy was the first to use the term "programmable matter" in connection with quantum dots, and to propose a mechanism for the precise, 3D control of large numbers of quantum dots inside a bulk material. Page | 4 WHAT IS PROGRAMMABLE MATTER GOOD FOR ? Almost anything. It can improve the efficient collection, storage, distribution, and use of energy from environmental sources. It can be used to create novel sensors and computing devices, probably including quantum computers. It can create materials which are not available by other means, and which change their apparent composition on demand. Currently, the design of new materials is a time- and labor-intensive process; with programmable matter, it becomes a real-time issue, similar to the design and debugging of software. They sustain unnatural properties. Now What does "unnatural properties" mean? Atoms can be square, pyramidal, two-dimensional, highly transuranic, composed of charged particles other than electrons (e.g., "holes"), and can even be asymmetrical. Their size, energy, and shape are variable quantities. Thus, atoms exhibit optical, electrical, thermal, magnetic, mechanical, and (to some extent) chemical behaviors which do not occur in natural materials. This variety is bounded but infinite, in sharp contrast to the 92 stable atoms of the periodic table. HOW IS PROGRAMMABLE MATTER MADE? Current forms of programmable matter fall into three types: Colloidal films, bulk crystals, and quantum dot chips which confine electrons electrostatically. Quantum dots can be grown chemically as nanoparticles of semiconductor surrounded by an insulating layer. These particles can then be deposited onto a substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer patterned with metal electrodes, or they can be crystalized into bulk solids by a variety of methods. Either substance can be stimulated with electricity or light (e.g., lasers) in order to change its properties. Electrostatic quantum dots are patterns of conductor (usually a metal such as gold) laid down on top of a quantum well, such that varying the electrical voltage on the conductors can drive electrons into and out of a confinement region in the well -- the quantum dot. This method offers numerous advantages over nanoparticle ("colloidal") films, including a greater control over the artificial atom's size, composition, and shape. Numerous quantum Page | 5 dots can be placed on the same chip, forming a semiconductor material with a programmable dopant layer near its surface. A number of fabrication technologies exist whose resolution is sufficient to produce room-temperature quantum dot devices. Rolling such quantum dot chips into cylindrical fibers produces "wellstone," a hypothetical woven solid whose bulk properties are broadly programmable. IS PROGRAMMABLE MATTER THE SAME THING AS NANOTECHNOLOGY? Yes and no. The word "nanotechnology" simply means "technology on the scale of nanometers," or billionths of a meter, i.e. technology on the molecular scale. Most forms of programmable matter rely on nano-circuitry, designer molecules, or both, so in this literal sense they are nanotechnology. However, as originally coined by K. Eric Drexler in the 1980s and as commonly used by lay persons today, the word nanotechnology implies nanoscale _machinery_, more properly known as molecular nanotechnology or MNT. While bulk materials incorporating MNT may have programmable properties, they also have moving parts. The term "programmable matter" does not rule out such materials, but more typically refers to substances whose properties can be adjusted in the solid state, with no moving parts other than photons and electrons. Page | 6 SYNTHETIC REALITY One application of an ensemble, comprised of millions of cooperating robot modules, is programming it to self-assemble into arbitrary 3D shapes. Our long-term goal is to use such ensembles to achieve synthetic reality, an environment that, unlike virtual reality and augmented reality, allows for the physical realization of all computer-generated objects. Hence, users will be able to experience synthetic reality without any sensory augmentation, such as head-mounted displays. They can also physically interact with any object in the system in a natural way. ENSEMBLE PRINCIPLE Realizing this vision requires new ways of thinking about massive numbers of cooperating millimeter-scale units. Most importantly, it demands simplifying and redesigning the software and hardware used in each catom to reduce complexity and manufacturing cost and increase robustness and reliability. For example, each catom must work cooperatively with others in the ensemble to move, communicate, and obtain power. Consequently, our designs strictly adhere to the ensemble principle: A robot module should include only enough functionality to contribute to the ensemble’s