Related papers: Towards Physarum robots: computing and manipulatin…
We present Monte Carlo Physarum Machine: a computational model suitable for reconstructing continuous transport networks from sparse 2D and 3D data. MCPM is a probabilistic generalization of Jones's 2010 agent-based model for simulating the…
A wide range of microorganisms, e.g. bacteria, propel themselves by rotation of soft helical tails, also known as flagella. Due to the small size of these organisms, viscous forces overwhelm inertial effects and the flow is at low Reynolds…
Soft machines are poised to deliver significant real-world impact, with soft robotics emerging as a key sub-discipline. This field integrates biological inspiration, materials science, and embodied intelligence to create bio-robotic…
Soft Continuum arms, such as trunk and tentacle robots, can be considered as the "dual" of traditional rigid-bodied robots in terms of manipulability, degrees of freedom, and compliance. Introduced two decades ago, continuum arms have not…
Experiments using large numbers of miniature swarm robots are desirable to teach, study, and test multi-robot and swarm intelligence algorithms and their applications. To realize the full potential of a swarm robot, it should be capable of…
Flagellated microorganisms can swim at low Reynolds numbers and adapt to changes in their environment. Specifically, the flagella can switch their shapes or modes through gene expression. In the past decade, efforts have been made to…
The transport and manipulation of particles and cells in microfluidic devices has become a core methodology in domains ranging from molecular biology to manufacturing and drug design. The rational design and operation of such devices can…
The Physarum network expands or retracts in response to environmental stimuli, demonstrating an intelligent adaptive capability to locate optimal paths for nutrient transport. The underlying physical mechanism governing this intelligence…
Physical implementations of neural computation now extend far beyond silicon hardware, encompassing substrates such as memristive devices, photonic circuits, mechanical metamaterials, microfluidic networks, chemical reaction systems, and…
Robotic grasping is a fundamental aspect of robot functionality, defining how robots interact with objects. Despite substantial progress, its generalizability to counter-intuitive or long-tailed scenarios, such as objects with uncommon…
Most of the quadrupeds developed are highly actuated, and their control is hence quite cumbersome. They need advanced electronics equipment to solve convoluted inverse kinematic equations continuously. In addition, they demand special and…
We present FabSim, a toolkit developed to simplify a range of computational tasks for researchers in diverse disciplines. FabSim is flexible, adaptable, and allows users to perform a wide range of tasks with ease. It also provides a…
The applicability of computational models to the biological world is an active topic of debate. We argue that a useful path forward results from abandoning hard boundaries between categories and adopting an observer-dependent, pragmatic…
Balancing parallel robots throughout their workspace while avoiding the use of balancing masses and respecting design practicality constraints is difficult. Medical robots demand such compact and lightweight designs. This paper considers…
Given the task of positioning a ball-like object to a goal region beyond direct reach, humans can often throw, slide, or rebound objects against the wall to attain the goal. However, enabling robots to reason similarly is non-trivial.…
Inspired by a couple of simple organisms without eyes, neither ears. This paper presents a novel hybrid bionic robot, called "particle robot", which mix a macro-organism and a micro-organism in the same robot. On one hand, an interesting…
This paper presents the Marinarium, a modular and stand-alone underwater research facility designed to provide a realistic testbed for maritime and space-analog robotic experimentation in a resource-efficient manner. The Marinarium combines…
A remarkable variety of organisms use metachronal coordination (i.e., numerous neighboring appendages beating sequentially with a fixed phase lag) to swim or pump fluid. This coordination strategy is used by microorganisms to break symmetry…
A mathematical model to describe period-memorizing behavior in Physarum plasmodium are reported. In constructing the model, we first examine the basic characteristics required for the class of models, then create a minimal linear model to…
This work presents the design and development of the quadruped robot Squeaky to be used as a research and learning platform for single and multi-SLAM robotics, computer vision, and reinforcement learning. Affordable robots are becoming…