Modular Robots

http://www2.parc.com/spl/projects/modrobots/index.html
Modular Reconfigurable Robotics is an approach to building robots for
various complex tasks. Instead of designing a new and different
mechanical robot for each task, you just build many copies of one simple
module. The module can't do much by itself, but when you connect many
of them together you get a system that can do complicated things. In fact,
a modular robot can even reconfigure itself -- change its shape by moving
its modules around -- to meet the demands of different tasks or different
working environments.
Self-Reconfigurable Robots

z Traditional approaches of building separate robots for separate tasks

may not be cost efficient and appropriate for those complex tasks in
environments that are not human friendly.
z Reconfigurable robot is modular, multifunctional, and reconfigurable
for different tasks at different mission stages.
z Challenges: how to coordinate all modules to achieve a common goal
dynamically?
z Four layers: hardware, locomotion control, transform control, and
cognitive control.
z Available Reconfigurable Robots

¾ MTRAN( National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology,

Japan)
¾ SuperBot (Polymorphic Robotics Lab, University of Southern California)
¾ Molecube (Cornell University)
¾ Others
 M-TRAN (Modular Transformer)

http://unit.aist.go.jp/is/dsysd/mtran3/
SuperBot (Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory, USC)

http://www.isi.edu/robots/superbot.htm
CrossCube (Stevens Embedded Systems and Robotics Lab)

z Limitations on locomotion designs and

high-level control algorithms on the
available reconfigurable robots
z Our objective: to tackle those limitations
and develop a highly flexible locomotion
mechanism and more intelligent GRN-
based cognitive control algorithm to adapt
to dynamic environments and tasks.
z CrossCube
¾ Hardware and locomotion: lattice-based
robot module that is able to rotate, climb
and parallel move on other modules
surface
¾ Transform and cognitive control: evolving
gene regulation network(GRN) based
algorithms.
CrossCube

z Self-reconfigure robot modules to

various shapes/forms based on
different task requirements or
environments.
z Can self-detect module failures and
self-repair malfunctions by
reconfiguration
z From homogeneous modules to
heterogeneous models
z Challenges
¾ Flexible, robust, adaptive, reliable,
interactive, integration, etc..
z Potential applications
¾ Urban search and rescue, security,
space exploration, transportation
through narrow and complex space,
etc.
(video demos)
Biological Inspired Robot: Snake Robot (Tokyo Institute
of Technology, Shigeo Hirose Group)

“On the evening of December 26, 1972, for the first time in the world we
succeeded in producing artificial serpentine movement at a speed of
approximately 40 cm/sec using the principles of a serpentine movement
which is the same as actual snakes. The entire length of the device is 2 m,
and it has 20 joints.”
– From http://www-robot.mes.titech.ac.jp/robot/snake/acm3/acm3_e.html
 Biological Inspired Robot: Snake Robot (Tokyo Institute
of Technology, Shigeo Hirose Group)

Serpentine Propulsion Raise head

The system consists perpendicularly connected as a straight chain by the unit

that has batteries, a control board, and actuator of 1 DOF, shell structure had
lightweight and high rigidity.
Swimming Snake Robot
Biological Inspired Robots: legged robots
Centralized versus Distributed Control Laws

z Global Centralized Control

¾ Allow for more coherent team cooperation
¾ Often results in increased communication requirements
¾ The knowledge is computationally costly
¾ Oftentimes all the needed global knowledge is not known
¾ Vulnerable with robot failures and in dynamic environment
z Local Distributed Control

¾ Computationally Simple
¾ Handle dynamic environments well Oftentimes unclear as to how
to design local control laws
¾ Must rely on physical sensors
¾ Oftentimes unclear as to how to design local control laws
Biological-Inspired Swarm Robots

z Swarm intelligence is an artificial intelligence (AI) technique based on

and modeled after the emergent, decentralized, self-organized,
collective behavior of insect colonies, bird flocks, and animal herds.
SI Nature’s Design: Insects

z Organizing highways to and from their foraging sites by leaving

pheromone trails

z Form chains from their own bodies to create a bridge to pull and hold
leafs together with silk

z Division of labour between major and minor ants

SI Nature’s Design: Birds

z A flight of ducks use V formation to reduce air drag and conserve

energy
z Optimize food searches by using the eyes of other ducks
z Ducks in a flight gain protection—better predator avoidance odds
Swarm Intelligence Principles

z Positive Feedback
¾ Ants are able to attract more help when a food source is found
¾ More ants on a trail increases pheromone and attracts even more
ants
z Negative Feedback
¾ Pheromone Decay
¾ Distant food sources are exploited last
z Randomness
¾ Ant decisions are random
¾ Food sources are found randomly
z Multiple Interactions
¾ No individual can solve a given problem. Only through the
interaction of many can a solution be found
Swarm Robots

z Many of the dangerous, dirty, or Null jobs can be performed more effectively by
groups of robots working together, such as swarms.
z Applications
¾ Urbane search and rescue,Surveillance systems, Exploration, Constructions
¾ Much more ….
z Advantages
¾ Parallel processing, cover more areas, coordination, robust and flexible
z Main challenges
¾ Adapt their behaviors based on interaction with the environment and
other robots
¾ Become more proficient in their tasks over time
¾ Adapt to new situations as they occur
¾ Coordination and cooperation
Swarm-Bots Project ( Marco Dorigo group in Europe)

z The main objective of the Swarm-bots project is to study a novel approach to the
design and implementation of self-organizing and self-assembling artefacts.
z This approach was inspired by the recent studies in swarm intelligence in social
insects and other animal societies.
z An artefact composed of a number of simpler, insect-like, robots, built out of
relatively cheap components, capable of self-assembling and self-organizing to adapt
to its environment
Swarm Robots – MIT/iRobot

http://people.csail.mit.edu/jamesm/swarm.php
 Multi-cellular based Multi-Agent Systems (Stevens
Embedded Systems and Robotics Lab)
z Self-organization of large collective systems is a challenging task
¾ Autonomous, adaptable, evolvable, robust, self-repairable, emergent
¾ Suboptimal, non-controllable, non-predictable, not (easily) understandable
¾ Trade-off between global (centralized) and local (distributed) control
z Biological development, including cell growth, cell differentiation and morphogenesis,
can be seen as a self-organizing process
¾ Robust to genetic and environmental changes
¾ Use of global and local control
¾ Predictable and relatively understandable
z Biological development is under the temporal and spatial control of a gene regulatory
network (GRN)
z Can we borrow some ideas from developmental biology, in particular the
morphogenesis?

19
Preliminary Experimental Results on Multi-Robot
Formation

The video demo can be downloaded from http://www.ece.stevens-tech.edu/~ymeng/lab_home.htm

 1
The Honda Walking Robot http://www.honda.co.jp/tech/other/robot.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLGk9Q49y7k
 1
Entertainment Robots: Humanoid Robots (SONY)
DARPA Grand Challenge

z The DARPA Grand Challenge has been the most significant event for
the robotics community in more than a decade.

z A mobile ground robot had to traverse 132 miles of unrehearsed desert

terrain in less than 10 hours.

z In 2004, the best robot only made 7.3 miles.

z In 2005, Stanford won the challenge and the $2M prize in less than 7
hours travel time, and ahead of four other finishers.
DARPR Grand Challenge 2007

z The Urban Challenge. Teams will compete to build an autonomous

vehicle able to complete a 60-mile urban course safely in less than 6
hours.
z The DARPA Urban Challenge will take place in Victorville, California

on November 3, 2007.

z "It was an important step to have autonomous ground vehicles that

can navigate and drive across open and difficult terrain from city to
city. But the next big leap will be an autonomous vehicle that can
navigate and operate in traffic, a far more complex challenge for a
'robotic' driver. So this November we are very excited to be moving
from the desert to the city with our Urban Challenge."

Dr. Tony Tether, Director, DARPA

Unmanned Maritime System (Senior Design project)

z Point of Contact: M. DeLorme (Center for Maritime Systems)

z No of Students: 2
z Fields of Interest: Robotics, autonomous systems
z Project Sponsor: Office of Naval Research
z

z DESCRIPTION:
z

z The project involves the design, development and demonstration deployment of an unmanned
maritime system (UMS) or systems to perform a task to be specified by the project sponsor.
Students will be responsible for developing the system and deployment specifications based
on independent research and planning. This team will be part of a larger multidisciplinary
team working with students in Mechanical Engineering and Naval Engineering to accomplish
the project goals. Interested students MUST meet with Michael DeLorme
(mdelorme@stevens.edu) to further discuss the responsibilities and expectations of this project
and to submit a one page resume highlighting their qualifications as related to the proposed
project.
Homework #1

z In order to prepare your project, you may want to search for some
robot simulators from the websites. Please try to find at least two
robot simulators you like and try to use them to see if it is possible for
you to write control programs, such as localization, navigation, multi-
robot coordination, on those simulators.
z You can find your project partners and build up a group (at most 3

persons for undergraduates, and 2 persons for graduates), or you like to

do it individually (more credits).
z For the course project, you have two options

¾ Theoretical exploration: real research papers and propose some new

approaches
¾ Building robotic systems, which includes building real robotic systems or
running on a simulation