In 2006-2008 I pursued a Master of Science in Modern Artificial Intelligence with the Maersk Institute under the University of Southern Denmark in Odense.

My master's project involved the complete evolution, design and construction of a robotic system able to create 3 dimensional structures autonomously. I did this relying on inspiration from natural architects, modern architecture and historical and cultural designs. My biggest source of inspiration was the way ants engaged in collective construction manage to build hugely complex structures despite the simplicity of the individuals and the lack of colony government.
Over the course of two semesters I managed to develop a modular system composed of active robots and passive, but intelligent building blocks.
The robots were able to drive, climb and handle blocks. The blocks were able to look at their immediate neighbors, use sparse comunication with the robots and rely on short term memory in order to govern the completion of the structure.
Because of my background in electro-technical engineering this project strongly focused on implementing behaviors in basic hardware reflexes, rather than high level software algorithms, and optimizing technology specifically for the task in hand rather than generalizing and thus complicating the system.

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