> I feel that's not robust enough - what if some of your bots are missing? When we're talking millions of microscopic robots, I think we need to assume that many will break down, get misplaced, or be in a position disadvantageous for it to fulfill a designated role. A robust system cannot rely on all the robots in a predetermined ID range/set to be there - it needs to work with what's actually available.
Nothing about what I posted assumes that. I'm just saying it's the server that would orchestrate them rather than them orchestrating each other. The server would obviously poll them for positional data (relative to neighbour), health status, etc.
> The person setting up the experiment doesn't care about what any individual grain of sand does. They just set up a pattern, encode it in a standing wave, and the sand moves to conform to it.
I didn't suggest that someone manually plots each grain either. Clearly you'd just set up a design in a CAD and then let the server define the algorithm and orchestration required.
Much like how when you manage nodes currently, you don't manually assign which node to scale up or down. You define rules and let the system manage the nodes itself.
Given the problems of miniaturisation and decentralised computing, this feels like a problem easier solved in a centralised system that then hands out instructions (and your requirements clearly stated there was a control system that you used to instruct the grains of sand when you said "press enter on my laptop").
Nothing about what I posted assumes that. I'm just saying it's the server that would orchestrate them rather than them orchestrating each other. The server would obviously poll them for positional data (relative to neighbour), health status, etc.
> The person setting up the experiment doesn't care about what any individual grain of sand does. They just set up a pattern, encode it in a standing wave, and the sand moves to conform to it.
I didn't suggest that someone manually plots each grain either. Clearly you'd just set up a design in a CAD and then let the server define the algorithm and orchestration required.
Much like how when you manage nodes currently, you don't manually assign which node to scale up or down. You define rules and let the system manage the nodes itself.
Given the problems of miniaturisation and decentralised computing, this feels like a problem easier solved in a centralised system that then hands out instructions (and your requirements clearly stated there was a control system that you used to instruct the grains of sand when you said "press enter on my laptop").