FireAnt: A Modular Robot with Full-Body Continuous Docks
FireAnt: A Modular Robot with Full-Body Continuous Docks
复制标题
FireAnt：具有全身连续坞站的模块化机器人
DOI：
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发表时间：
2018
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Michael Rubenstein
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Petras Swissler;Michael Rubenstein
大自然提供了许多有机体组合在一起形成自组装结构的例子。这些生物采用的依恋方法使它们可以抓住他人的身体，通常不需要特定的对齐或方向，这是大多数现有机器人自组装结构所缺乏的能力，这需要复杂的感应和特定的对齐。本文介绍了火器，这是一种模块化的2D机器人，展示了全身连续的码头，即在任何方向下都可以在其他机器人上附加到其他机器人的附件机制，从而消除了对对齐机制和复杂传感器的需求。这样的码头允许火焰爬上自身的副本，这对于自组装结构至关重要。本文首先讨论了火线的设计，然后提出测试结果，该结果显示了连续码头的强度和可靠性，并证明了火星遍历由惰性火器机器人组成的环境的能力。本文介绍的工作提供了一种对接机制，该机制可以最大程度地减少模块化机器人的机械复杂性，并允许产生一群刚性和适应性的自组装结构。
Nature offers many examples of organisms coming together to form self-assembling structures. The attachment methods these organisms employ allow them to grab onto others' bodies, often without need for specific alignment or orientation, an ability absent from most existing robotic self-assembling structures, which require complicated sensing and specific alignment. This paper presents FireAnt, a modular 2D robot that demonstrates full-body continuous docks, an attachment mechanism able to attach anywhere onto other robots at any orientation, eliminating the need for alignment mechanisms and complex sensors. Such docks allow FireAnt to climb over copies of itself, something critical to self-assembling structures. This paper first discusses the design of FireAnt before presenting test results that show the strength and reliability of the continuous docks and demonstrate FireAnt's ability to traverse an environment consisting of inert FireAnt robots. The work presented in this paper provides a docking mechanism that can minimize the mechanical complexity of modular robots and will allow the creation of swarms of rigid and adaptable self-assembling structures.