Replicators, Transformers, and Robot Swarms:
Science Fiction through Geometric Algorithms

Erik D. Demaine


Science fiction is a great inspiration for science.  How can we build
reconfigurable robots like Transformers or Terminator 2?  How can we build
Star Trek-style replicators that duplicate or mass-produce a given shape at
the nano scale?  How can we orchestrate the motion of a large swarm of robots?


Recently we've been exploring possible answers to these questions through
computational geometry, in the settings of reconfigurable robots
(both modular and folding robots that can become any possible shape),
robot swarms (which may be so small and simple that they have no identity),
and self-assembly (building computers and replicators out of DNA tiles).