Self-assembly in heterogeneous modular robots

Liu, Wenguo; Winfield, Alan F.T.

Abstract

This paper describes the distributed self-assembly of a multi-robot ‘organism’ from a swarm of autonomous heterogeneous modular mobile robots. A distributed self-assembly strategy based on a symbol sequence representation is proposed. Constructed from a tree representation of an organism, the symbol sequence is presented as a well organised nested structure in a compact format. It includes not only information on the topology of the organism but also how the organism will be self-assembled. The proposed approach has been tested with real robot prototypes. Results show that robots can successfully self-assemble to required target body plans within certain time frames.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems
• Start Date: Nov 8, 2012
• End Date: Nov 11, 2012
• Publication Date: Nov 8, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 7, 2019
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: swarm robotics, self-assembly, modular robots
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/941997
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS2012)