Workshop on Self-Reconfiguring Robots

该奖项资助了一个NSF研究计划研讨会，该研讨会将于1998年秋季在新罕布什尔的军事中心举行。研讨会将探讨在构建和使用自重构机器人以增加机器人系统灵活性方面的科学和工程挑战。自重构机器人由一组相同的模块组成，这些模块可以动态地、自主地重构成各种形状，以最佳地适应机器人必须导航的地形、机器人必须操纵的物体的形状或任务的感知需求。一个模块化的机器人结构，可以变形成不同的几何结构，通过内部重组其模块支持多种模式的导航，操作和传感。自重构为研究物理系统中组织和重组的基本原理提供了一种范式转换。在机器人技术中，自重构定义了大量关于设计、控制和使用大规模分布式机器人系统的问题。自我重新配置机器人的科学基础才刚刚开始出现。机械设计、分布式系统和规划的进步将推动这一领域的进步。自重构机器人研讨会将汇集该领域的顶尖专家，讨论该领域的现状，并制定短期和长期的研究目标。讨论的摘要将作为网站和达特茅斯计算机科学技术报告提供。

This award funds an NSF Research Planning Workshop on Self-reconfiguring Robots, to be held in the Fall of 1998 at the Minary Center, New Hampshire. The workshop will investigate the scientific and engineering challenges in building and using self-reconfiguring robots to increase the flexibility of robot systems. Self-reconfiguring robots consist of a set of identical modules that can dynamically and autonomously reconfigure in a variety of shapes, to best fit the terrain the robot has to navigate, the shape of the object the robt has to manipulate, or the sensing needs of the task. A modular robotic structure that can metamorphose into a different geometric structure by reorganizing internally its modules supports multiple modalities of navigation, manipulation, and sensing. Self-reconfiguration provides a paradigm shift for studying the fundamental principles of organization and reorganization in physical systems. In robotics, self-reconfiguration defines a rich class of questions about designing, controlling, and using massively distributed systems of robots. The scientific foundations of self-reconfiguring robotics are only beginning to emerge. Progress in this field will be enabled by advances in mechanical design, distributed systems, and planning. The workshop on self-reconfiguring robotics will bring together leading experts in this field to discuss the current state of the field and to set short term and long term research goals. A summary of the discussion will be provided as a Web site and as a Dartmouth computer science technical report.