Locomotion with unit-modular reconfigurable robot
Locomotion with unit-modular reconfigurable robot
Crystalline Robots: Self-Reconfiguration with Compressible Unit Modules
Autonomous Robots
Roomware for Cooperative Buildings: Integrated Design of Architectural Spaces and Information Spaces
CoBuild '98 Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Cooperative Buildings, Integrating Information, Organization, and Architecture
Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata
Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata
Getting a grip on tangible interaction: a framework on physical space and social interaction
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Multimode locomotion via SuperBot reconfigurable robots
Autonomous Robots
Adaptive Dynamic Walking of a Quadruped Robot on Natural Ground Based on Biological Concepts
International Journal of Robotics Research
Automated Design of Adaptive Controllers for Modular Robots using Reinforcement Learning
International Journal of Robotics Research
Million Module March: Scalable Locomotion for Large Self-Reconfiguring Robots
International Journal of Robotics Research
Learning to Move in Modular Robots using Central Pattern Generators and Online Optimization
International Journal of Robotics Research
Automatic Modular Assembly System and its Distributed Control
International Journal of Robotics Research
Roombots: mechanical design of self-reconfiguring modular robots for adaptive furniture
ICRA'09 Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE international conference on Robotics and Automation
Graph signature for self-reconfiguration planning of modules with symmetry
IROS'09 Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE/RSJ international conference on Intelligent robots and systems
The particle swarm - explosion, stability, and convergence in amultidimensional complex space
IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
A heterogeneous modular robotic design for fast response to a diversity of tasks
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Modular and reconfigurable mobile robotics
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
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Imagine a world in which our furniture moves around like legged robots, interacts with us, and changes shape and function during the day according to our needs. This is the long term vision we have in the Roombots project. To work towards this dream, we are developing modular robotic modules that have rotational degrees of freedom for locomotion as well as active connection mechanisms for runtime reconfiguration. A piece of furniture, e.g. a stool, will thus be composed of several modules that activate their rotational joints together to implement locomotor gaits, and will be able to change shape, e.g. transforming into a chair, by sequences of attachments and detachments of modules. In this article, we firstly present the project and the hardware we are currently developing. We explore how reconfiguration from a configuration A to a configuration B can be controlled in a distributed fashion. This is done using metamodules-two Roombots modules connected serially-that use broadcast signals and connections to a structured ground to collectively build desired structures without the need of a centralized planner. We then present how locomotion controllers can be implemented in a distributed system of coupled oscillators-one per degree of freedom-similarly to the concept of central pattern generators (CPGs) found in the spinal cord of vertebrate animals. The CPGs are based on coupled phase oscillators to ensure synchronized behavior and have different output filters to allow switching between oscillations and rotations. A stochastic optimization algorithm is used to explore optimal CPG configurations for different simulated Roombots structures.