TY - GEN
T1 - Eciton robotica
T2 - 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2020
AU - Malley, Melinda
AU - Haghighat, Bahar
AU - Houe, Lucie
AU - Nagpal, Radhika
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 IEEE.
PY - 2020/5
Y1 - 2020/5
N2 - 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 latticebased 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.
AB - 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 latticebased 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092730085&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85092730085&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICRA40945.2020.9196565
DO - 10.1109/ICRA40945.2020.9196565
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85092730085
T3 - Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
SP - 4565
EP - 4571
BT - 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2020
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 31 May 2020 through 31 August 2020
ER -