P25.14 Autonomous smart dust clusters for remote planetary exploration

Presented by: Prof John Barker

Co-author: Angelos Barmpoutis

Nanoelectronics Research Centre

Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering

University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland

Smart dust is envisaged as swarms of miniature communication/sensor devices useful for remote monitoring in space exploration. Very similar nanotechnology systems, known as smart specks are already being fabricated at the University of Glasgow Nanoelectronics Research Centre for applications in collective computer intelligence, wireless distributed systems and smart RF-ID tagging. With diameters and densities comparable to sand particles the behaviour of passive dust is comparable to the movement of airborne sand. A possible application would involve the launch of several tens of thousands of smart dust elements into a wind borne environment. The subsequent mission would involve navigation and data gathering/sensing over a period of time. Finally, the surviving dust would re-group into a phased array for transmission of data back to a remote spacecraft. The central problem is how to arrange for the collective self-organised motion of the smart dust ensemble in the presence of hostile terrain and weather. We have investigated the possibility of dynamically changing the shape of the smart dust elements so as to permit controlled navigation. Here we examine algorithms for the adaptive shape change of smart dust modes that permits a change in drag coefficient depending on whether or not the random motion is in a favourable direction. Monte Carlo simulations are reported for swarms of smart dust devices transporting in the wind-dominated environment of the Martian landscape. It is concluded that relatively simple shape changing algorithms, activated through an electro-active polymer sheath, will permit self-organised transport over large distances.

Presented to the 2007 RAS National Astronomy Meeting, held at University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK