11 accepted papers
This paper investigates the importance and design implications for use of rectangular blocks in collective robotic construction systems with distributed control. Specifically, we introduce an automated solver for optimizing the overlaps in user-specified structures; a new robot design capable of man
Tethers are an underutilized tool in multi-robot systems: tethers can provide power, facilitate retrieval and sensing, and be used to manipulate and gather objects. Starting with the simplest possible configuration, our work explores how agents linked in series by flexible, passive, fixed-length tet
Robots are especially useful in cold, remote, and inhospitable environments such as polar regions and extraterrestrial settings. Due to subfreezing temperatures and limited resources in these environments, robots made of ice are particularly advantageous. In this paper we demonstrate how the solid a…
Pruning weight is indicative of a vine’s ability to produce a crop the following year, informing vineyard management. Current methods for estimating pruning weight are costly, laborious, and/or require specialized know-how and equipment. In this paper we demonstrate an affordable, simple, computer v…
Tethers have great potential in multi-robot systems from enabling retrieval of deployed robots and facilitating power transfer, to use by the robots as a net or partition. In this paper, we show in simulation that tethers can also be used to do distributed formation control on very simple robots. Sp…
Multi-robot systems have been shown to build large-scale, user-specified structures using distributed, environmentally-mediated coordination in simulation. Little attention, however, has been devoted to error propagation and mitigation. In this paper, we introduce a detailed simulation of TERMES, a…
Recent innovations in miniature sensors are driving a shift from robotic to bio-hybrid systems for exploration of unstructured environments. The ubiquity of honey bees in modern agriculture and ecology along with their superior agility, olfactory sense, and collective foraging skills make them a pro…
Many modular robots and active matter platforms are inspired by natural aggregates of single-celled organisms that exhibit complex emergent behaviors far beyond the capability and range of individuals. These behaviors stem primarily from short range chemical and mechanical interactions. Past work ha
Shape reconstruction by soft sensors may be useful in applications ranging from precision agriculture to haptics and factory automation due to the potential for low-cost fabrication, durable operation, and safe and compliant interaction. Current prevalent techniques, however, require expertise, expe
Robotic systems that are soft or incorporate soft actuators are well suited for operation in unstructured environments and for safe interactions with fragile objects. The majority, however, are tethered or burdened with bulky payloads of pumps and compressors. In a recent article we presented a seal…
Fluidic actuators allow versatile, agile, and powerful motions and are commonly applied in robotics and automation. Likewise, many biological systems use fluidic actuators implemented with tissue for a wealth of tasks and performances. Spiders for example apply a hybrid mechanism of hydraulically ac…