Construction and Excavation by Collaborative Double-Tailed SAW Robots

Abstract

We describe a minimalistic robot mechanism that is capable of many construction behaviors in dry granular material including locomotion, climbing, leveling, subtraction, addition, transport, and burrowing. The design extends upon a single-actuator wave mechanism with the insight that the tails can be used both for locomotion in and manipulation of granules. For simplicity, experiments are limited to 2 manually controlled or 2 open loop robots operating in a quasi-2D vertical arena filled with packing peanuts. We demonstrate and characterize construction by single- and multi-robot systems, with special attention to how mechanism improvement, autonomy, and 3D operation could be achieved. Remarkably, we find that the majority of behaviors are robust – that is, the robots can achieve the intended functionality through open loop control, largely eliminating the need for sophisticated perception. The experiments indicate an unprecedented, simple robotic solution to many of the classic construction challenges.