EFRI C3 SoRo: Programmable Skins for Moldable and Morphogenetic Soft Robots

这个项目试图解决这样一个问题，即让机器人准备好执行一系列已知的任务，尽管缺乏关于要执行的任务或执行任务的环境的任何信息。所采取的方法是构建一种主动机器人皮肤，将运动、感知和决策集成到一个带有嵌入传感器和执行器的单一整合材料皮肤中，并将其包裹在被动的、可模塑的核心材料周围。皮肤的作用是使核心变形，使机器人移动，使用进化算法对其周围环境进行优化。在前期工作中，PI团队展示了一种最初的球形机器人，首先使自己滚动，然后变形为圆柱体，并切换到尺寸虫类型的步态。该项目将利用生物系统的新见解，为能够编辑自己的算法控制结构的机器人推导出新的操作原理，以利用不断变化的解剖学，实现更强大的功能。这项研究的结果将使变形机器人能够调整自己的形态来完成不同的任务，或者更有效地移动以满足不断变化的环境或上下文的需求。该项目致力于生产一种能够适应未知、危险或不可预测环境的探索或发现的变革性工具。刚体机器人通常在结构化环境中擅长特定的任务，但缺乏在自然界中互动和移动所需的多功能性和适应性。该项目将引入包裹在任意软体周围的机器人皮肤，以诱导所需的运动和变形。随着机器人皮肤的加入，被动软体可能会变成主动软机器人。机器人皮肤将驱动、传感、可变刚度和计算集成到单一的可整合材料中，并可用于创建能够在非结构化和动态环境中编辑自己的形态和控制的变形机器人。这项拟议工作的目标是开发和实现一个端到端的过程，该过程从行为规范开始，以物理自变形软机器人及其软件环境结束。这种方法将使用机器人皮肤作为变形机器的基础，通过将它们包裹在可模塑材料(例如粘土)周围，实现表面驱动的形状变化。机器人皮肤将通过控制表面张力、表面压力和选择性加强，将底层身体塑造成所需的形状。随着环境或任务的变化，皮肤会将身体重新塑造成一个新的形状，该形状针对其上下文进行了优化。这种方法将利用来自不同生物系统的新见解来获得新的数学模型、进化算法和多功能材料，以实现软机器人无与伦比的上下文敏感变形能力。该项目由国家科学基金会、新兴前沿和多学科活动办公室(EFMA)和美国空军科学研究办公室(AFOSR)联合赞助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project seeks to address the problem of preparing a robot to perform a set of known tasks, despite the lack of any information about the task to be performed or the environment in which it occurs. The approach taken is to construct an active robotic skin, integrating motion, sensing, and decision-making into a single conformable material skin with embedded sensors and actuators, and wrap it around a passive, moldable core material. The skin acts to deform the core, in such a way as to make the robot move, in a manner which is optimized for its surroundings using evolutionary algorithms. In preliminary work, the PI team has demonstrated an initially spherical robot first causing itself to roll, and then morphing to a cylinder and switching to an inchworm-type gait. This project will leverage novel insights from biological systems to derive new operational principles for robots capable of editing their own algorithmic control structure to make use of a changing anatomy, enabling more robust functionality. The results of this research will enable morphing robots that can adjust their morphology to accomplish different tasks or move more efficiently to meet the demands of changing environments or contexts. This project addresses the producing of a transformative tool that can adapt for exploration or discovery of unknown, dangerous, or unpredictable environments. Rigid-bodied robots generally excel at specific tasks in structured environments, but lack the versatility and adaptability required to interact-with and locomote-within the natural world. This project will introduce robotic skins that wrap around arbitrary soft bodies to induce the desired motions and deformations. With the addition of robotic skins, passive soft bodies may be turned into active soft robots. Robotic skins integrate actuation, sensing, variable stiffness, and computation into a single conformable material, and may be leveraged to create morphing robots capable of editing their own morphology and control in unstructured and dynamic environments. The objective of the proposed work is to develop and implement an end-to-end procedure that begins with behavior specifications and ends with a physical self-morphing soft robot and its software environment. The approach will employ robotic skins as the foundation of morphing machines by wrapping them around moldable materials (e.g. clay), enabling surface-driven shape change. Robotic skins will mold the underlying body into a desired shape through controlled surface strains, surface pressures and selective stiffening. As the environment or task changes, the skin will re-mold the body into a new shape that is optimized for its context. This approach will leverage novel insights from diverse biological systems to derive new mathematical models, evolutionary algorithms, and multifunctional materials to enable unparalleled contextually-sensitive morphing capabilities for soft robots.This project is jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Office of Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities (EFMA) and the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.