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

这个项目将创建和探索一个机器人架构，由一个顺应的、形状变化的、桁架状的结构组成。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伸和压缩，并且每个三角形的两端都固定在其他构件上。在这个概念中，结构构件是充气的管子，节点是一个简单的机器人网络，可以沿着管子的长度移动。通过它们的运动，联网的节点机器人可以在整个桁架结构中引起较大的形状变化，允许相同的机器人重新配置自己以实现不同的功能，包括不同的运动和操作模式。除了能够改变形状外，节点机器人的移动还实现了动态功能。由于结构构件是柔顺的充气管，因此整个结构可以安全地与人类合作伙伴进行合作活动。与一些气动机器人的设计不同，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，如大型泵或气罐。该项目结合了软机器人、集体机器人和基于桁架的机器人领域的优势，有可能克服这些单独研究领域的限制。这种方法为实现无处不在的、人类安全的协作机器人提供了可能性，例如可以改变形状的个人移动设备，该设备可以在必要时充当助行器、坐立辅助设备、跌倒防护设备或楼梯辅助设备。同样，这种方法也可以用于工业应用，例如建筑工人的多功能协作机器人，根据需要改变形状，以帮助举起、对准、握住、支撑或推动。最后，这一多功能和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学生的动手学习工具。这个项目围绕三个目标组织，每个目标都需要增加复杂性和功能性：1)在非平坦的地形上移动，2)爬行、攀登和跳跃，以及3)吞没、操纵和向环境中的物体施加强大的力量。该项目将通过假设驱动的、现实世界情景中的受控实验以及对结果的量化度量和统计分析来评估与每个目标的目标相关的结果。预计在物理联网的分布式机器人领域将有新的基础知识，从而增加对此类系统可伸缩性的新理解。该项目还将推进关于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，用于大规模软机器人的可控摩擦材料的开发将为理解软机器人与其环境之间的相互作用提供新的理解。最后，定容气动机器人新范例的开发是软机器人领域开创性的概念进步，它将通过消除对空气供应的需求，极大地增强软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 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.