5,000 robots will establish the most detailed 3D map of the universe

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory plan to use a 5,000-robot astronomical system to establish the most detailed 3D map of the universe. Currently the miniature prototype system is about to be tested.

Scientists from the Berkeley lab created a prototype called ProtoDESI based on a system of 10 robots. ProtoDESI helps scientists accurately measure the expansion of the universe due to dark energy through tens of millions of galaxies, quasars and stars.

This prototype will be installed on the Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona, in early August this year."This test will be more obvious in September than in August. These tests can be carried out even in bad weather , " Parker Fagrelius, who manages ProtoDESI projects at Berkeley Lab for know.

The DESi robot (right) will spread 10 wedge-shaped "petals" together at the center. The two ends of fiber optic cable will rotate nearly 200,000 rounds. The first "petals" will be assembled in October and tested until December at the Berkeley lab.

The team's final project aims to establish the most detailed 3D map of the universe and explore the secrets of dark energy named DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument). If ProtoDESI only has 10 robots, DESI has up to 5,000 micro robots.

The DESI project is managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It is estimated that about 200 scientists and 45 organizations from around the world will participate in this project. In addition to helping scientists better understand dark energy, the DESI project also gives them a wealth of knowledge about dark matter, the universe of birth and our galactic structure.

While robots of the DESI project mainly target galaxies , ProtoDESI will accurately track moving objects in the sky . Each cylindrical robot will be attached with a fiber optic cable, so it has the ability to target specific points in the sky and detect light from celestial bodies far away from the Earth like stars, quasars and especially distant galaxies.

Each robot will be about 25cm long and have two small internal motors that allow two independent rotations to position a fiber optic cable anywhere in a small circular area.

Parker Fagrelius at Berkeley, California lab.She was staring at ProtoDESI, a prototype system of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.ProtoDESI will be tested at the Mayall telescope in Arizona in August and September.

At the Berkeley lab in California, the first 10 robots are making preparations for a project that can solve the most mysterious things of the universe.Laboratory scientists plan to use 5000 such robots to establish the most detailed 3D universe map ever.Currently, a miniature sample is in beta.

When the DESI system is completed, movements will allow these 5,000 robots to spread across all their metal points. This requires a high degree of accuracy so that robots do not collide with each other as they turn to each other several times per hour.

Joe Silber, an Berkeley Lab engineer, said fiber optic cables are one of the most sensitive components in DESI. The two ends of fiber optic cable will rotate nearly 200,000 rounds.

The DESI robot can point the optical cable head (red dot, top left) to any object in the sky within 12mm diameter.

Currently, researchers are expected to officially present DESI in 2018. Hopefully with this project, Berkeley lab scientists analyze tens of thousands of galaxies every night.

In the immediate future, an experiment with ProtoDESI will be conducted at the Berkeley Laboratory before transferring it to the astronomical Mayall. The robot system in DESI will be segmented by 10 wedge-shaped petals and each petal contains 500 robots. The first petals will be fully assembled in October and tested in the Berkeley lab until December.

Dark energy is a term used by physicists to describe something unrelated to strange phenomena in the universe.

Dr. Kathy Romer of the Dark Energy Survey project said, "The expansion and expansion of the universe shows no sign of slowing but it is still happening at a faster rate. This is contrary to expectations. by scientists because they hope that the rate of expansion of the universe will slow down over time by nearly 14 billion years after the Big Bang ".