Related papers: Energy Dissipation by Metamorphic Micro-Robots in …
For robots to handle the numerous factors that can affect them in the real world, they must adapt to changes and unexpected events. Evolutionary robotics tries to solve some of these issues by automatically optimizing a robot for a specific…
Fish often travel in highly organized schools. One of the most quoted functions of these configurations is energy savings. Here, we verified the hypothesis and explored the mechanism through series of experiments on "schooling" robotic…
Evolutionary algorithms offer great promise for the automatic design of robot bodies, tailoring them to specific environments or tasks. Most research is done on simplified models or virtual robots in physics simulators, which do not capture…
The move to high performance applications greatly increases the demand to produce large instantaneous fluid forces for high-speed maneuvering and improved power efficiency for sustained propulsion. Animals achieve remarkable feats of…
Design of robots at the small scale is a trial-and-error based process, which is costly and time-consuming. There are few dynamic simulation tools available to accurately predict the motion or performance of untethered microrobots as they…
If robots are to become ubiquitous, they will need to be able to adapt to complex and dynamic environments. Robots that can adapt their bodies while deployed might be flexible and robust enough to meet this challenge. Previous work on…
We propose a distributed control law for a heterogeneous multi-robot coverage problem, where the robots could have different energy characteristics, such as capacity and depletion rates, due to their varying sizes, speeds, capabilities, and…
Despite their growing popularity, swarms of robots remain limited by the operating time of each individual. We present algorithms which allow a human to sculpt a swarm of robots into a shape that persists in space perpetually, independent…
Soft materials have many important roles in animal locomotion and object manipulation. In robotic applications soft materials can store and release energy, absorb impacts, increase compliance and increase the range of possible shape…
Efficient mobility and power consumption are critical for autonomous water surface robots in long-term water environmental monitoring. This study develops and evaluates a transformable mobility mechanism for a water surface robot with two…
Flexible robots have advantages over rigid robots in their ability to conform physically to their environment and to form a wide variety of shapes. Sensing the force applied by or to flexible robots is useful for both navigation and…
Intelligence lies not only in the brain (decision-making processes) but in the body (physical morphology). The morphology of robots can significantly influence how they interact with the physical world, crucial for manipulating objects in…
In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis and discussion of energy consumption in agricultural robots. Robots are emerging as a promising solution to address food production and agroecological challenges, offering potential…
Systems whose movement is highly dissipative provide an opportunity to both identify models easily and quickly optimize motions. Geometric mechanics provides means for reduction of the dynamics by environmental homogeneity, while the…
Design of robots at the small scale is a trial-and-error based process, which is costly and time-consuming. There are no good dynamic simulation tools to predict the motion or performance of a microrobot as it moves against a substrate. At…
In surgery, the application of appropriate force levels is critical for the success and safety of a given procedure. While many studies are focused on measuring in situ forces, little attention has been devoted to relating these observed…
Learning to change shape is a fundamental strategy of adaptation and evolution of living organisms, from bacteria and cells to tissues and animals. Human-made materials can also exhibit advanced shape morphing capabilities, but lack the…
Soft robots offer more flexibility, compliance, and adaptability than traditional rigid robots. They are also typically lighter and cheaper to manufacture. However, their use in real-world applications is limited due to modeling challenges…
We propose to make the physical characteristics of a robot oscillate while it learns to improve its behavioral performance. We consider quantities such as mass, actuator strength, and size that are usually fixed in a robot, and show that…
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…