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A self-assembling and self-repairing mechanical system is experimentally studied to demonstrate its effectiveness. We developed a 2-D model of autonomous me- chanical unit capable of dynamic reconfiguration and inter-unit communication. Self-assembly and self-repair experiments have been carried out using a distributed algorithm developed under the...
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Citations
... The concept of self-repairing was introduced in [23]. Their proposed algorithm was mainly based on simulated-annealing and was used for the self-assembly of Fractum robot. ...
... This algorithm was implemented in a distributed manner to avoid premature convergence to undesired shapes using a stochastic relaxation process based on simulated annealing. A hardware system composed of 20 mechanical units was used for validation [48]. ...
... In [48] to accomplish self-repair using Crystalline robot with a focus on geometric motion planning. Crystalline robots can self-repair using a three-phase process: failure detection, failed module ejection, and replacing the failed module with a good one. ...
Evolutionary robotics aims to automatically design autonomous adaptive morphological robots that can evolve to accomplish a specific task while adapting to environmental changes. Soft robotics have demonstrated the feasibility of evolutionary robotics for the synthesis of robots' control and morphology. The motivation of developing evolutionary soft computing techniques to that can generate task oriented structures for morphological robots makes the domain of soft-robotics worthy of serious investigation and research, and hence this article summarizes an important volume of research for a computational and software architecture perspective. This paper reviews the literature and discusses various aspects of evolutionary robotics including the application on morphological soft robots to allow self-assembly, self-reconfiguration, self-repair, and self-reproduction. Then, major milestones are outlined along with important morphological soft robotic prototypes due to their importance in the field. Finally, the current state of the art in the field is assessed.
... This algorithm was implemented in a distributed manner to avoid premature convergence to undesired shapes using a stochastic relaxation process based on simulated annealing. A hardware system composed of 20 mechanical units was used for validation [48]. ...
... Fitch et al. built on the work of Yoshida et al. in [48] to accomplish self-repair using Crystalline robot with a focus on geometric motion planning. Crystalline robots can self-repair using a three-phase process: failure detection, failed module ejection, and replacing the failed module with a good one. ...
Evolutionary robotics aims to automatically design autonomous adaptive robots that can evolve to accomplish a specific task while adapting to environmental changes. A number of studies have demonstrated the feasibility of evolutionary robotics for the synthesis of robots control and morphology. For that reason, we review the literature in this paper and discuss various aspects of evolutionary robotics including the application on modular robotics to allow self-assembly, self-reconfiguration, self-repair, and self-reproduce. Then, we outline some milestones and important modular robotic prototypes due to their importance in the field. Finally, we assess the current state of the art in the field. The motivation to blend evolutionary robotics and modular robotics literature review in one article came from our confidence that applying evolutionary robotics to optimize modular robots can generate marvelous robotic behavior.
... Furthermore, there is considerable work on selforganizing robots that are used to produce specific shapes by connecting module units automatically. One of the early examples is "Fractam" by Murata [3,4]. There is no autonomous robot for construction of marine structure as it is now. ...
We propose a new algorithm to build self-organizing and self-repairing marine structures on the ocean floor, where humans and remotely operated robots cannot operate. The proposed algorithm is based on the one-dimensional cellular automata model and uses simple transition rules to produce various complex patterns. This cellular automata model can produce various complex patterns like sea shells with simple transition rules. The model can simulate the marine structure construction process with distributed cooperation control instead of central control. Like living organism is constructed with module called cell, we assume that the self-organized structure consists of unified modules (structural units). The units pile up at the bottom of the sea and a structure with the appropriate shape eventually emerges. Using the attribute of emerging patterns in the one-dimensional cellular automata model, we construct specific structures based on the local interaction of transition rules without using complex algorithms. Furthermore, the model requires smaller communication data among the units because it only relies on communication between adjacent structural units. With the proposed algorithm, in the future, it will be possible to use self-assembling structural modules without complex built-in computers.
... It is an attractive possibility to realize fault-tolerance and self-repair by taking advantage of modular robot's redundancy and ability to adapt and self-reconfigure. Previous work has demonstrated fault-tolerance and self-repair on modular robots engaged in locomotion and self-reconfiguration (Yoshida et al 1999;Fitch et al 2000;Stoy and Nagpal 2004;Bongard et al 2006;Christensen et al 2008a). For example, in a paper by Mahdavi and Bentley (2003) the control of a snake like robot was optimized online using a genetic algorithm. ...
This paper presents experiments with a morphology-independent, life-long strategy for online learning of locomotion gaits. The experimental platform is a quadruped robot assembled from the LocoKit modular robotic construction kit. The learning strategy applies a stochastic optimization algorithm to optimize eight open parameters of a central pattern generator based gait implementation. We observe that the strategy converges in roughly ten minutes to gaits of similar or higher velocity than a manually designed gait and that the strategy readapts in the event of failed actuators. We also optimize offline the reachable space of a foot based on a reference design but finds that the reality gap hardens the successfully transference to the physical robot. To address this limitation, in future work we plan to study co-learning of morphological and control parameters directly on physical robots.
... Self-repair: replacement of an entity's defective modules with operational modules. In principle, the operational modules can already reside within the entity (as redundant modules)Vfor example, see [80] and [127]. Alternatively, the entity can assimilate additional modules from the environment. ...
In this paper, we review half a century of research on the design of systems displaying (physical) self-assembly of macroscopic components. We report on the experience gained in the design of 21 such systems, exhibiting components ranging from passive mechanical parts to mobile robots. We present a taxonomy of the systems and discuss design principles and functions. Finally, we summarize the main achievements and indicate potential directions for future research.
... Shen et al. (2002) presented a hormone-inspired method of active communication and active distributed control that was evaluated on the CONRO self-reconfigurable robot. Yoshida et al. (1999) addressed and experimented with both self-assembly and selfrepair in two dimensions on the Fractum robot and in three dimensions on a large, DC-motor-driven robot. In essence, all of these homogeneous modular robots perform repair by discarding a failed module. ...
Research in man-made systems capable of self-diagnosis and self- repair is becoming increasingly relevant in a range of scenarios in which in situ repair/diagnosis by a human operator is infeasi- ble within an appropriate time frame. In this paper, we present an approach to the multi-robot team diagnosis problem that utilizes gradient-based training of multivariate Gaussian distributions. We then evaluate this approach using a testbed involving modular mo- bile robots, each assembled from four electromechanically separable modules. The diagnosis algorithm is trained on data obtained from two sources: (1) a computer model of the system dynamics and (2) experimental runs of the physical prototypes. Tests were then per- formed in which a fault was introduced in one robot in the testbed and the diagnostic algorithm was queried. The results show that the state predicted by the diagnostic algorithm performed well in iden- tifying the fault state in the case when the model was trained using the experimental data. Limited convergence was also demonstrated using training data from an imperfect dynamic model and low data sampling frequencies. KEY WORDS—diagnosis, fault diagnosis, self diagnosis, team diagnosis, robot team repair, mobile robot, robotics, multi-robot system, modular robot, gradient-based training, particle filters.
... In this paper we address the latter challenge. Related work on self-repair of selfreconfigurable robots generally involves the detection of module failure, decisions on how to remove a defect module , and how to replace it with a spare module [4], [21], [24]. Alternatively, as in this work, self-repair can emerge as a side effect of the self-reconfiguration, without having a specialized self-repairing part of the controller [20]. ...
This paper presents a series of experiments on fault tolerant self-reconfiguration of the ATRON robotic system. For self-reconfiguration we use a previously described distributed control strategy based on meta-modules that emerge, move and stop. We perform experiments on three different types of failures: 1) Action failure: On the physical platform we demonstrate how roll-back of actions are used to achieve tolerance to collision with obstacles and other meta-modules. 2) Module failure: In simulation we show, for a 500 module robot, how different degrees of catastrophic module failure affect the robot's ability to shape-change to support an insecure roof. 3) Robot failure: In simulation we demonstrate how robot faults such as a broken robot bone can be emergent self-repaired by exploiting the redundancy of self-reconfigurable modules. We conclude that the use of emergent, distributed control, action roll-back, module redundancy, and self-reconfiguration can be used to achieve fault tolerant, self-repairing robots
... Existing 2D systems include metamorphing hexagonal modules (Pamecha et al., 1997), self-repairing machine (Yoshida et al., 1998) and Crystalline robot (Butler et al., 2002) moving in horizontal plane, and Inchworm (Kotay and Rus, 1997), self-organizing robot (Hosokawa et al., 1998) moving in vertical plane. Modular systems that can self-reconfigure and move in 3D space include Polypod/Polybot (Yim et al., 2000) and Conro (Shen et al., 2002) that combines different gaits, and robotic molecule (Kotay et al., 1998), self-reconfigurable structure (Yoshida et al., 1999), Proteo (Bojinov et al., 2000) and I-Cubes (Ünsal et al., 2001) that can change shape using neighboring modules. Most of these systems are homogeneous, with the exception of Polypod/Polybot and I-Cubes, which consist of two different types of modules. ...
In this paper, we propose a novel, 3D, like cubic shape, modular self-reconfigurable (MSR) robot named M-Cubes. Its key mechanical
components are analyzed in detail. By communicating with the neighboring modules, each unit employs its automatic lock device
composed of a pin and a hole on each connection plane which can connect or disconnect with neighboring modules. The M-Cubes
system consisting of many identical modules cooperates to change their connection, and then the whole structure transforms
into arbitrary structure. Furthermore, we describe its locomotion control based on the driving function and the adjacency
matrix which is effective for solving the computationally difficult problem and optimizing the system motion path during the
self-reconfiguration process. Finally, a simulation experiment using java 3D technology, proved the new method for controlling
modular robot is robust and useful.
... Recently, MSR robots have attracted many researchers. Various types of modular systems have been proposed in abroad [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9], in these researches, the hardware design of the module and control algorithms are the central issues. This paper centers the research of MSR distributed locomotion based Cellular Automata. ...
Based the character of Modular Self-Reconfigurable (MSR) robots, a homogeneous lattice robot called M-Cubes which owe to the
property and structure of agent was build, feature vector matrix of modules describe completely the connection relation among
modules. Motion mode and action of modules were analyzed. Emergent control is the most suited system control of MSR by comparing
control way. Due to MSR robot is similar with cellular automata, emergent control model based CA was proposed. A two layers
NN which has 7 inputs and single output simulate the nonlinear rules function, the feature vector of module is input of CA’s
rules, action of module is output of CA’s rules. The simulation results show that emergent control based CA is great significance
to enhance robustness and scale extensibility of MSR.
