Virtual Nervous Systems for Self-Assembling Robots - A preliminary report
Abstract
We define the nervous system of a robot as the processing unit responsible for controlling the robot body, together with the links between the processing unit and the sensorimotor hardware of the robot - i.e., the equivalent of the central nervous system in biological organisms. We present autonomous robots that can merge their nervous systems when they physically connect to each other, creating a "virtual nervous system" (VNS). We show that robots with a VNS have capabilities beyond those found in any existing robotic system or biological organism: they can merge into larger bodies with a single brain (i.e., processing unit), split into separate bodies with independent brains, and temporarily acquire sensing and actuating capabilities of specialized peer robots. VNS-based robots can also self-heal by removing or replacing malfunctioning body parts, including the brain.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1505.07050,
title = {Virtual Nervous Systems for Self-Assembling Robots - A preliminary report},
author = {Nithin Mathews and Anders Lyhne Christensen and Rehan O'Grady and Marco Dorigo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.07050},
year = {2015}
}