Self-reconfiguring Robots: Successes and Challenges

Self-reconfiguring Robots: Successes and Challenges

Daniela Rus

Department of Computer Science Dartmouth College, Hanover NH 03755, USA rus@cs.dartmouth.edu

Abstract

We wish to create versatile robots by using self­ reconfiguration: hundreds of small modules au­ tonomously organize and reorganize as geometric structures to best fit the terrain on which the robot has to move, the shape of the object the robot has to manipulate, or the sensing needs for the given task. Self-reconfiguration allows large collections of small robots to actively organize as the most op­ timal geometric structure to perform useful coordi­ nated work.

A self-reconfiguring robot consists of a set of identical modules that can dynamically and au­ tonomously reconfigure in a variety of shapes, to best fit the terrain, environment, and task. Self­ reconfiguration leads to versatile robots that can support multiple modalities of locomotion and ma­ nipulation. Self-reconfiguring robots constitute large scale distributed systems. Because the mod­ ules change their location continuously they also constitute ad-hoc networks.

This talk will discuss the challenges and successes of creating self-reconfiguring robots, ranging from designing hardware capable of self-reconfiguration to developing distributed controllers and planners for such systems that are scalable, adaptive, and support real-time behavior.

Acknowledgments

Support for this work was provided through NSF awards IRI9714332, EIA-9901589, IIS-9818299, IIS-9912193, EIA0202789 and 0225446, ONR award N00014-0l-l-0675 and DARPA Task Grant F-30602-00-2-0585.