We present hardware, perception, and planning tools that enable a modular robot to autonomously deploy passive structures to reach otherwise-inaccessible regions of the environment to accomplish high-level tasks. An environment characterization algorithm identifies features in the environment that can be augmented to create a path between two disconnected regions of the environment. Specially-designed building blocks enable the robot to create structures that can augment the identified features to expand the reachable space of the robot. A high-level planner reasons about the high-level task, robot locomotion capabilities, and the environment to decide if and where to augment the environment in order to perform the desired task. These autonomous, perception-driven augmentation tools extend the adaptive capabilities of modular robot systems.
Our work extends the SMORES-EP hardware system by introducing passive pieces that are manipulated and traversed by the modules. Terada and Murata @cite_7 , present a lattice-style modular system with two parts, structure modules and an assembler robot. Like many lattice-style modular systems, the assembler robot can only move on the structure modules, and not in an unstructured environment. Other lattice-style modular robot systems create structures out of the robots themselves. M-blocks @cite_4 form 3D structures out of robot cubes which rotate over the structure. present rectangular boat robots that self-assemble into floating structures, like a bridge @cite_11 .
@cite_4 @cite_7 @cite_11
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We present the methodology, algorithms, system design, and experiments addressing the self-assembly of large teams of autonomous robotic boats into floating platforms. Identical self-propelled robotic boats autonomously dock together and form connected structures with controllable variable stiffness. These structures can self-reconfigure into arbitrary shapes limited only by the number of rectangular elements assembled in brick-like patterns. An @math complexity algorithm automatically generates assembly plans which maximize opportunities for parallelism while constructing operator-specified target configurations with @math components. The system further features an @math complexity algorithm for the concurrent assignment and planning of trajectories from @math free robots to the growing structure. Such peer-to-peer assembly among modular robots compares favorably to a single active element assembling passive components in terms of both construction rate and potential robustness through redundancy. We describe hardware and software techniques to facilitate reliable docking of elements in the presence of estimation and actuation errors, and we consider how these local variable stiffness connections may be used to control the structural properties of the larger assembly. Assembly experiments validate these ideas in a fleet of 0.5 m long modular robotic boats with onboard thrusters, active connectors, and embedded computers. We describe the design, implementation and programming of a set of robots that, starting from an amorphous arrangement, can be assembled into arbitrary shapes and then commanded to self-disassemble in an organized manner to obtain a goal shape. We present custom hardware, distributed algorithms and experimental results from hundreds of trails which show the system successfully forming complex 3D shapes. Each of the 28 modules in the system is implemented as a 1.8-inch autonomous cube-shaped robot able to connect to and communicate with its immediate neighbors. Embedded microprocessors control each module's magnetic connection mechanisms and infrared communication interfaces. When assembled into a structure, the modules form a system that can be virtually sculpted using a computer interface and a distributed process. The group of modules collectively decides which elements are a part of the final shape and which are not using algorithms that minimize information transmission and storage. Finally, the modules not in the structure disengage their magnetic couplings and fall away under the influence of an external force: in this case, gravity. In this article we examine the problem of dynamic self-reconfiguration of a class of modular robotic systems referred to as metamorphic systems. A metamorphic robotic system is a collection of mechatronic modules, each of which has the ability to connect, disconnect, and climb over adjacent modules. A change in the macroscopic morphology results from the locomotion of each module over its neighbors. Metamorphic systems can therefore be viewed as a large swarm of physically connected robotic modules that collectively act as a single entity. What distinguishes metamorphic systems from other reconfigurable robots is that they possess all of the following properties: (1) a large number of homogeneous modules; (2) a geometry such that modules fit within a regular lattice; (3) self-reconfigurability without outside help; (4) physical constraints which ensure contact between modules. In this article, the kinematic constraints governing metamorphic robot self-reconfiguration are addressed, and lower and upper bounds are established for the minimal number of moves needed to change such systems from any initial to any final specified configuration. These bounds are functions of initial and final configuration geometry and can be computed very quickly, while it appears that solving for the precise number of minimal moves cannot be done in polynomial time. It is then shown how the bounds developed here are useful in evaluating the performance of heuristic motion planning reconfiguration algorithms for metamorphic systems. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The main difficulty of construction automation is the variety of materials. To cope with this problem, we propose a concept of automated assembly system for a modular structure. This system uses passive building blocks called "structure modules" and an assembler robot that is specialized to handle them. This "modular" concept drastically simplifies structural construction and allows automation. This paper describes the hardware design of the structure module and the assembler robots. Especially, the connection mechanism, the essential element of the system, is explained in detail. We built a prototype model based on the design to evaluate its automatic construction capability. Some experimental results illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method.