Collaborative Research: RI: Medium: Living Architectures: From Army Ants to Self-Assembling Robots

合作研究：RI：媒介：活体建筑：从行军蚂蚁到自组装机器人

• 批准号: 1955210
• 负责人: Simon Garnier
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: New Jersey Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1955210&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RI; Medium; Living

Army ants are unlike any other ant species. They are nomadic and therefore do not build permanent nests. Instead, between two episodes of sometimes daily migration, they build temporary nests called “bivouacs” by attaching themselves to each other. In this way they build functional structures solely out of their interconnected bodies. Army ants can assemble and disassemble bivouacs of up to a million individuals in less than an hour and can do so in almost any condition in which they find themselves. These incredible feats of constructions are of great interest for engineers looking to create swarms of robots that could autonomously assemble themselves anywhere into any desired shape. Similar swarms could, for instance, self-assemble into habitats on Mars or in disaster areas without human intervention and regardless of the state of the local environment. This collaborative research brings together biologists and roboticists to achieve two goals: understand the principles of self-assembling construction in army ants, and adapt these principles to create a new generation of robots capable of self-assembling into any desired functional structure, even in unpredictable environments. The project will also give students from K12 to Ph.D. an opportunity to learn how biological structures build themselves out of smaller units, and how fundamental knowledge of natural processes can lead to new technological developments and applications in engineering. The project has three complementary components. In Component 1, the researchers will perform field experiments to determine the rules used by army ants to self-assemble into functional structures. These studies will combine computer vision-assisted behavioral observations to measure the individual behaviors of the ants and high-definition 3D imaging using a custom-designed CT-scanner to characterize the organization and dynamics of the structure under construction. In Component 2, the result of the field experiments will be used to generate a multi-agent mathematical model and a physics-based simulation of the ant behaviors. The focus will be to design generalizable agent abstractions that allow for mathematical analysis to determine what forms of individual rules lead to correct and efficient collective outcomes as determined by the functional goal (e.g. formation of bivouac), and how modification of individual sensing and coordination capabilities affect the colony capability. Finally, in Component 3, the researchers will design a self-assembling robotic swarm with at least 30 robots. The swarm will be capable of building functional structures in unknown environments, through climbing and attaching to each other. These robots will use similar principles as army ants for collective control and allow complex 3D “organic” self-assembled structures. The goal is not to mimic ant morphology, but instead demonstrate novel robot designs that use embodied intelligence and bio-inspired control, to achieve similarly adaptive structures while also allowing simplicity and large-scale manufacturability.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.

军蚂蚁与其他任何蚂蚁物种不同。它们是游牧的，因此不建立永久的巢。取而代之的是，在有时每天迁移的两个情节之间，它们通过彼此依恋，建立了称为“ bivouacs”的临时巢。通过这种方式，它们仅从相互联系的机构中构建功能结构。陆军蚂蚁可以在不到一个小时的时间内组装和拆卸多达一百万个人的bivouacs，并且几乎可以在他们发现自己的任何条件下这样做。这些令人难以置信的建筑壮举对于希望创建可以自主将自己组装成任何理想形状的工程师组成的工程师引起了极大的兴趣。例如，类似的群体可以在没有人类干预的情况下自我组装成火星或灾难地区的栖息地，而不管当地环境的状态如何。这项合作研究汇集了生物学家和机器人，以实现两个目标：了解陆军蚂蚁中自组装的原则，并适应这些原则，以创建新一代的机器人，即使在无法预测的环境中，也可以自组装成任何所需的功能结构。该项目还将为学生提供从K12到博士学位。一个机会学习生物结构如何从较小的单位中建立自己，以及自然过程的基本知识如何导致工程技术的新技术发展和应用。该项目具有三个完整的组件。在组件1中，研究人员将执行现场实验，以确定陆军蚂蚁自我组装成功能结构的规则。这些研究将结合计算机视觉辅助的行为观察，以使用自定义设计的CT-Scanner来衡量蚂蚁的个体行为和高清3D成像，以表征正在构建的结构的组织和动态。在组件2中，现场实验的结果将用于生成多代理数学模型和基于物理的蚂蚁行为模拟。重点是设计可概括的代理摘要，以确定哪种形式的单个规则会导致纠正和有效的集体结果，这取决于功能目标（例如，Bivouac的形成）以及个人感测和协调能力的修改如何影响菌落能力。最后，在组件3中，研究人员将设计一个至少30个机器人的自组装机器人群。群将能够在未知环境中构建功能结构，通过攀爬和彼此依恋。这些机器人将使用与陆军蚂蚁相似的原则进行集体控制，并允许复杂的3D“有机”自组装结构。目的不是模仿蚂蚁形态，而是展示了使用具有体现的智能和生物启发控制的新型机器人设计，以实现类似的适应性结构，同时也允许简单和大规模的制造业。这奖反映了NSF的立法任务，并通过使用基金会的知识效果和广泛的评估来评估，并以评估为支持。