Quantum Robots for Teenagers

Extending the ideas of quantum Braitenberg vehicles from (A. Raghuvanshi, 2006), we present here a family of Lego robots controlled by multiple-valued quantum circuits. The robots have at most 6 degrees of freedom (motors) and 6 sensors. Their basic architecture is a generalization of robots from (Ch. Brawn et al, 2006) to more versatile multiple-valued quantum automata (simulated in software). We believe that building robots with "quantum brains" is an excellent future application of quantum computing and now it helps students to learn principles of quantum circuits. We present a one-year project in "quantum robotics for teenagers". Our project brings research and educational perspectives, which are both presented in this paper.

1. Introduction

Contrary to opinions of some “popular science writers” quantum computing is not science fiction - quantum circuits are already used commercially for secure communication. The results of the famous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment [7] are already well-established and provide a base of operations for quantum circuits, communication, etc. The strange and fascinating world of quantum computing is now widely open for investigation and commercialization. It is believed that quantum computing will begin to have a global impact around year 2010. We have an interest in two questions: 1) how quantum computers and quantum information concepts can be used in the area of robotics, 2) how the concepts of quantum computing can be taught to future inventors and users of this technology who are now middle school students. This paper is related to both questions.