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  4. Eciton robotica: Design and Algorithms for an Adaptive Self-Assembling Soft Robot Collective
 
conference paper

Eciton robotica: Design and Algorithms for an Adaptive Self-Assembling Soft Robot Collective

Malley, Melinda
•
Haghighat, Bahar  
•
Houe, Lucie
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January 1, 2020
2020 Ieee International Conference On Robotics And Automation (Icra)
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

Social insects successfully create bridges, rafts, nests and other structures out of their own bodies and do so with no centralized control system, simply by following local rules. For example, while traversing rough terrain, army ants (genus Eciton) build bridges which grow and dissolve in response to local traffic. Because these self-assembled structures incorporate smart, flexible materials (i.e. ant bodies) and emerge from local behavior, the bridges are adaptive and dynamic. With the goal of realizing robotic collectives with similar features, we designed a hardware system, Eciton robotica, consisting of flexible robots that can climb over each other to assemble compliant structures and communicate locally using vibration. In simulation, we demonstrate self-assembly of structures: using only local rules and information, robots build and dissolve bridges in response to local traffic and varying terrain. Unlike previous self-assembling robotic systems that focused on lattice-based structures and predetermined shapes, our system takes a new approach where soft robots attach to create amorphous structures whose final self-assembled shape can adapt to the needs of the group.

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Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1109/ICRA40945.2020.9196565
Web of Science ID

WOS:000712319503031

Author(s)
Malley, Melinda
Haghighat, Bahar  
Houe, Lucie
Nagpal, Radhika
Date Issued

2020-01-01

Publisher

IEEE

Publisher place

New York

Published in
2020 Ieee International Conference On Robotics And Automation (Icra)
ISBN of the book

978-1-7281-7395-5

Series title/Series vol.

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA

Start page

4565

End page

4571

Subjects

Automation & Control Systems

•

Engineering, Electrical & Electronic

•

Robotics

•

Engineering

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
DISAL  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

ELECTR NETWORK

May 31-Jun 15, 2020

Available on Infoscience
December 18, 2021
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/183866
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