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

行军蚁不同于其他蚂蚁。它们是游牧动物，因此不会建造永久的巢穴。相反，在有时每天迁徙的两个阶段之间，它们会互相连接，建立临时的巢穴，称为“宿营地”。通过这种方式，它们完全依靠相互连接的身体来构建功能结构。军蚁可以在不到一个小时的时间内组装和拆卸多达100万只蚂蚁的营地，而且几乎可以在任何条件下进行组装和拆卸。这些令人难以置信的建筑壮举引起了工程师们的极大兴趣，他们希望制造出一群机器人，这些机器人可以在任何地方自动组装成任何想要的形状。例如，类似的蜂群可以在没有人类干预的情况下自行组装成火星或灾区的栖息地，也不受当地环境状况的影响。这项合作研究将生物学家和机器人专家聚集在一起，以实现两个目标：了解蚁群自组装结构的原理，并根据这些原理创造新一代的机器人，这些机器人能够自组装成任何所需的功能结构，即使在不可预测的环境中也是如此。该项目还将为从K12到博士的学生提供一个机会，让他们了解生物结构是如何从更小的单元中构建出来的，以及自然过程的基础知识如何导致新技术的发展和工程应用。该项目有三个互补的组成部分。在第一部分中，研究人员将进行实地实验，以确定军蚁自组装成功能结构的规则。这些研究将结合计算机视觉辅助行为观察来测量蚂蚁的个体行为，并使用定制设计的ct扫描仪进行高清3D成像，以表征正在建造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智能体数学模型和基于物理的蚂蚁行为模拟。重点将是设计可概括的代理抽象，允许数学分析来确定哪些形式的个体规则导致由功能目标确定的正确和有效的集体结果（例如露营的形成），以及个体感知和协调能力的修改如何影响群体能力。最后，在组件3中，研究人员将设计一个具有至少30个机器人的自组装机器人群。蜂群将能够在未知的环境中通过攀爬和相互附着来建造功能性结构。这些机器人将使用与军团蚂蚁相似的原理进行集体控制，并允许复杂的3D“有机”自组装结构。目标不是模仿蚂蚁的形态，而是展示使用具身智能和生物启发控制的新颖机器人设计，以实现类似的自适应结构，同时也允许简单和大规模制造。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.