Team-Based Robot Righting via Pushing and Shell Design

Abstract

The minimalist robot designs typically employed in swarms and teams can fall and get trapped when traversing irregular terrain. To protect against this contingency the design could add a specialized escape actuator, but each actuator drives up cost multiplicatively for the whole team. Instead, the emergency actuator can be found for free in the form of another teammate. Teammate pushing can be efficiently directed by careful shaping of the robot's exterior hull. This approach is illustrated by designing a shell for VelociRoACH robots that enables them to roll pronated comrades back onto their feet. The designed maneuver can be performed in open-loop with 87% success and an average time of 0.7 seconds.