Presidential Faculty Fellows/Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PFF/PECASE)

该奖项资助设计，控制和规划的初步调查 问题 可自我重构的机器人。 一 自重构机器人是一组具有自组织能力的一个或多个自主模块，即自主地改变它们的几何形状。 自重构机器人可以被视为 作为 极简主义的设计方法 多功能，可扩展， 和 可靠的机器人 他们是 合适 for applications 需要多次运动 步态 在不同类型的地形上，或者将联合收割机的机动性与灵活的操作结合起来，这在传统机器人的初始设计时是无法预料的。这项工作的重点是任务导向的自我重构，重点是机器人，可以自我组织，以支持多种运动步态和机器人，可以顺序运动和操纵步态。 本研究将探讨几种可自重构模组的设计.每一种设计的潜力将通过几何特征的三维机器人结构，可以建立它的类进行评估。这项研究也将考虑控制和规划方法，以自我重新配置。 对于每个模块设计，控制 和协调算法将被开发和评估。将开发一套基本配置结构，包括基本模块设计和支持特定的操作和运动步态。将开发和评估在任何两个此类配置之间转换的规划算法。

This award funds an initial investigation of design, control, and planning issues for self-reconfigurable robots. A self- reconfigurable robot is a set of one or more autonomous modules with the capability to self-organize, that is, to change their geometric shape autonomously. Self-reconfigurable robots can be viewed as a minimalist approach to designing versatile, extensible, and reliable robots. They are suitable for applications that require multiple locomotion gaits over different types of terrain, or that combine mobility with flexible manipulation in ways that could not be anticipated at the time of initial design of a conventional robot. The focus of this work is task-directed self-reconfiguration, with an emphasis on robots that can self-organize to support multiple locomotion gaits and on robots that can sequence locomotion and manipulation gaits. This research will explore several designs for self- reconfigurable modules. The potential of each design will be evaluated by geometrically characterizing the class of three- dimensional robotic structures that can be built with it. This research will also consider control and planning approaches to self-reconfiguration. For each module design, control and coordination algorithms will be developed and evaluated. A set of basic configuration structures that consist of the basic module designs and support specific manipulation and locomotion gaits will be developed. Planning algorithms for transitioning between any two such configurations will be developed and evaluated.