NRI: INT: COLLAB: Mesh Of Robots on a Pneumatic Highway (MORPH): An Untethered, Human-Safe, Shape-Morphing Robotic Platform

NRI：INT：COLLAB：气动高速公路上的机器人网格 (MORPH)：一个不受束缚、对人类安全、可变形的机器人平台

• 批准号: 1925030
• 负责人: Sean Follmer
• 金额: $ 104.84万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1925030&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NRI; INT; COLLAB; Mesh; Robots

This project will create and explore a robotic architecture consisting of a compliant, shape-changing, truss-like structure. A truss typically consists of triangles of load-bearing members, each of which can resist tension and compression and each of which is pinned to other members at both ends. In this concept, the structural members are inflated tubes and the nodes are a network of simple robots that can travel along the tube lengths. By their motion, the networked node-robots can cause large shape changes in the overall truss structure, allowing the same robot to reconfigure itself for diverse functions, including different modes of locomotion and manipulation. In addition to the ability to change shape, movement of the node-robots also enables dynamic functionality. Because the structural members are compliant inflatable tubes, the entire structure can be made safe for collaborative activities with human partners. In contrast to some pneumatic robot designs the inflatable tubes nominally maintain a constant volume, hence the system does not need to be tethered to a high capacity pressure source such as a large pump or air tank. This project incorporates strengths from the fields of soft robotics, collective robotics, and truss-based robotics, with the potential to overcome limitations of these individual research areas. The approach offers the potential for enabling ubiquitous, human-safe co-robots for applications such as a shape-changing personal mobility device that could act, as necessary, as a walker, a sit-to-stand aid, a fall-guarding device, or a stair aid. Similarly the approach could be used in industrial applications, such as a multi-function co-robot for construction workers, changing shape as needed to help lift, align, hold, prop, or push. Finally, this versatile and human-friendly concept is well-suited as an education and development platform for non-experts, for example as a hands-on learning tool for K-12 students. This project is organized around three objectives, each requiring increasing complexity and functionality: 1) locomotion across non-flat terrain, 2) crawling, climbing, and jumping, and 3) engulfing, manipulating, and applying large forces to objects in the environment. The project will evaluate the results with respect to the goals of each objective through hypothesis-driven, controlled experiments in real-world scenarios with quantitative metrics and statistical analyses of the results. New fundamental knowledge is anticipated in the realm of physically networked distributed robots, adding new understanding about the scalability of such systems. The project will also advance knowledge surrounding customizability of robotic systems to specific environments and tasks, exploring optimal control and shape change of a given topology. Additionally, the development of controllable friction materials for large-scale soft robots will provide new understanding of interactions between soft robots and their environments. Finally, the development of a new paradigm of constant-volume pneumatic robotics constitutes a groundbreaking conceptual advance to the field of soft robotics, which will greatly enhance the practicality of soft mobile robots, by eliminating the need for an air supply.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.

该项目将创建并探索一种机器人架构，该架构由顺应的、可变形的桁架状结构组成。桁架通常由三角形的承重构件组成，每个三角形都可以抵抗拉力和压力，并且每个三角形的两端都固定到其他构件上。在这个概念中，结构构件是充气管，节点是可以沿着管长度行进的简单机器人网络。通过运动，网络节点机器人可以导致整个桁架结构发生较大的形状变化，从而允许同一个机器人重新配置自身以实现不同的功能，包括不同的运动和操纵模式。除了改变形状的能力之外，节点机器人的移动还可以实现动态功能。由于结构构件是顺应性充气管，因此整个结构可以安全地与人类伙伴进行协作活动。与某些气动机器人设计相比，充气管名义上保持恒定的体积，因此系统不需要连接到大容量压力源，例如大型泵或气罐。该项目融合了软机器人、集体机器人和桁架机器人领域的优势，有可能克服这些单独研究领域的局限性。该方法为实现无处不在的、对人类安全的协作机器人应用提供了潜力，例如可变形的个人移动设备，可以根据需要充当助行器、坐立辅助器、防坠落装置或楼梯辅助器。同样，该方法可用于工业应用，例如建筑工人的多功能协作机器人，可根据需要改变形状以帮助提升、对齐、保持、支撑或推动。最后，这种多功能且人性化的概念非常适合作为非专家的教育和发展平台，例如作为 K-12 学生的实践学习工具。 该项目围绕三个目标进行组织，每个目标都需要增加复杂性和功能性：1）跨越非平坦地形的运动，2）爬行、攀爬和跳跃，3）吞没、操纵环境中的物体并向其施加巨大的力。该项目将通过在现实场景中进行假设驱动的受控实验，并对结果进行定量指标和统计分析，评估每个目标的结果。预计物理网络分布式机器人领域将出现新的基础知识，增加对此类系统可扩展性的新理解。该项目还将推进有关机器人系统针对特定环境和任务的可定制性的知识，探索给定拓扑的最佳控制和形状变化。此外，用于大型软机器人的可控摩擦材料的开发将为软机器人与其环境之间的相互作用提供新的理解。最后，恒定体积气动机器人新范式的开发构成了软体机器人领域突破性的概念进步，它将通过消除对空气供应的需求，极大地提高软体移动机器人的实用性。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

DiNNO: Distributed Neural Network Optimization for Multi-Robot Collaborative Learning

• DOI: 10.1109/lra.2022.3142402
• 发表时间: 2021-09
• 期刊: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Javier Yu;Joseph A. Vincent;M. Schwager

Acoustic Communication and Sensing for Inflatable Modular Soft Robots

• DOI: 10.1109/icra48506.2021.9561183
• 发表时间: 2021-01
• 期刊: 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
• 作者: Daniel S. Drew;Matthew R. Devlin;E. Hawkes;Sean Follmer

Distributed Target Tracking in Multi-Agent Networks via Sequential Quadratic Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers

• DOI: 10.23919/acc55779.2023.10156402
• 发表时间: 2023-05
• 期刊: 2023 American Control Conference (ACC)
• 作者: O. Shorinwa;M. Schwager

Balloon Animal Robots: Reconfigurable Isoperimetric Inflated Soft Robots

气球动物机器人：可重构等周充气软体机器人

• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: 2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS
• 作者: Stuart, Anthony D;Hammond, Zachary M;Follmer, Sean
• 通讯作者: Follmer, Sean

Locomotion of Linear Actuator Robots Through Kinematic Planning and Nonlinear Optimization

通过运动学规划和非线性优化实现线性致动器机器人的运动

• DOI: 10.1109/tro.2020.2995067
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: IEEE Transactions on Robotics
• 影响因子: 7.8
• 作者: Usevitch, Nathan S.;Hammond, Zachary M.;Schwager, Mac
• 通讯作者: Schwager, Mac