Related papers: A self-organizing robotic aggregate using solid an…
We present a system enabling a modular robot to autonomously build structures in order to accomplish high-level tasks. Building structures allows the robot to surmount large obstacles, expanding the set of tasks it can perform. This…
Swarm behaviour engineering is an area of research that seeks to investigate methods and techniques for coordinating computation and action within groups of simple agents to achieve complex global goals like pattern formation, collective…
We present a geometric design rule for size-controlled clustering of self-propelled particles. We show that active particles that tend to rotate under an external force have an intrinsic, signed parameter with units of curvature which we…
In swarm robotics, just as for an animal swarm in Nature, one of the aims is to reach and maintain a desired configuration. One of the possibilities for the team, to reach this aim, is to see what its neighbours are doing. This approach…
Homogeneity and heterogeneity represent a well-known trade-off in the design of modular robot systems. This work addresses the heterogeneity concept, its rationales, design choices and performance evaluation. We introduce challenges for…
Control policy learning for modular robot locomotion has previously been limited to proprioceptive feedback and flat terrain. This paper develops policies for modular systems with vision traversing more challenging environments. These…
Most of the grand challenges of humanity today involve complex agent-based systems, such as epidemiology, economics or ecology. However, remains as a pending task the challenge of identifying the general principles underlying their…
Collective behavior in animals has long been modeled through self-propelled particle models, which reproduce striking group-level phenomena through abstract interaction forces. Yet these models are fundamentally descriptive: they leave open…
A good organization model of multiple mobile robot should be able to improve the efficiency of the system, reduce the complication of robot interactions, and detract the difficulty of computation. From the sociology aspect of topology,…
Biological and robotic systems often operate in confined environments where material must be gathered without centralized control. Inspired by the effective collection strategies of aquatic worms (Lumbriculus variegatus and Tubifex…
Robotic systems operating in unstructured environments require the ability to switch between compliant and rigid states to perform diverse tasks such as adaptive grasping, high-force manipulation, shape holding, and navigation in…
Soft robots have the potential to revolutionize the use of robotic systems with their capability of establishing safe, robust, and adaptable interactions with their environment, but their precise control remains challenging. In contrast,…
Robotic grasping is facing a variety of real-world uncertainties caused by non-static object states, unknown object properties, and cluttered object arrangements. The difficulty of grasping increases with the presence of more uncertainties,…
This paper presents a novel planning method that achieves navigation of multi-robot formations in cluttered environments, while maintaining the formation throughout the robots motion. The method utilises a decentralised approach to find…
The Modboat is a low-cost, underactuated, modular robot capable of surface swimming, docking to other modules, and undocking from them using only a single motor and two passive flippers. Undocking is achieved by causing intentional…
In this work, we explore emergent behaviors by swarms of anonymous, homogeneous, non-communicating, reactive robots that do not know their global position and have limited relative sensing. We introduce a novel method that enables such…
Rigid-bodied robots often lack compliance needed to adapt to unstructured environments, while fully soft robots, though highly adaptable, struggle with scalability and load capacity. In nature, musculoskeletal systems balance strength and…
This paper presents a novel methodology that allows a swarm of robots to perform a cooperative transportation task. Our approach consists of modeling the swarm as a {\em Gibbs Random Field} (GRF), taking advantage of this framework's…
Aggregation is a fundamental behavior for swarm robotics that requires a system to gather together in a compact, connected cluster. In 2014, Gauci et al. proposed a surprising algorithm that reliably achieves swarm aggregation using only a…
Endowing robots with the ability to rearrange various large and heavy objects, such as furniture, can substantially alleviate human workload. However, this task is extremely challenging due to the need to interact with diverse objects and…