A bee in his bonnet

As a child growing up in Baldwin, N.Y., James McLurkin had two abiding interests: technology and biology, the former instilled by his parents' love of nature. While still in high school, McLurkin, now 30, had programmed video games, assembled a customized computer, and conceived and built two robots. Now the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student is leading a group of scientists at iRobot in Somerville, Mass, that's built more than 100 small robots-each about 4 1/2 inches per side-that are programmed to mimic bee behavior. Swarms of these robots will cluster, disperse, follow, and orbit, thanks to algorithms he's developed. The invention of these self-contained, autonomous robots garnered McLurkin the ninth $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for inventiveness. His bee 'bots have bump and light sensors, a self-charger, a radio modem, and an audio system. He's working on giving them sensors to detect food and trails, as well as a camera. McLurkin, who is completing a Ph.D. in computer science, says that by having his robots interact like bees, they can complete individual tasks that support the group's collective goal. McLurkin has been buggy for quite some time-as an MIT undergraduate, he built smaller robots that simulated the behavior of an ant colony.

McLurkin believes that microrobotics must be linked to natural phenomena. His lab robots are for research and have no real tasks to perform, but he says whatever one robot can do well, a group of them can do better. Potential uses include searching for survivors in disaster areas, exploring caves and other dangerous venues, perhaps someday exploring planets. "As robot technology advances, so will swarm technology and software," McLurkin says.

Swarms of "evil" microrobots that threaten the world are the premise of Michael Crichton's best-selling recent book, Prey. McLurkin hasn't read it but doesn't think people should feel threatened by his work. "Anyone who has worked with robots knows how profoundly stupid they are. It's hard to get them to do anything, let alone take over the world." Well, that's a relief.