How to Make a Self-Reconfigurable Robot Run

Kasper Støy, Wei-Min Shen, and Peter Will. How to Make a Self-Reconfigurable Robot Run. In Proc. First Intl. Joint Conf. on Autonomous Agents & Multiagent Systems, pp. 813–820, Bologna, Italy, 2002.

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Abstract

In this paper we present role based control which is a multi-agent based control algorithm for self-reconfigurable robots. We use role based control to implement quadruped and hexapod gaits in a real self-reconfigurable robot made from up to nine independent autonomous modules. We show that this implementation scales and argue that it is minimal, robust to module failures, to loss of communication signals, and to interchange of modules. In role based control all modules of the robot run identical programs, but may play different roles. The modules decide what role to play based on their local configuration and information propagated down to them through the configuration tree. A role consists of a cyclic motion, the period of this motion, and a set of delays. The delays specify the phase delay of the cyclic motions of the child modules compared to the parent. These delays are used to coordinate the motions of the individual module to obtain a coordinated global behavior.

BibTeX Entry

@InProceedings{	  stoy2002how-to-make-a-self-reconfigurable-robot-run,
  abstract	= {In this paper we present role based control which is a
		  multi-agent based control algorithm for self-reconfigurable
		  robots. We use role based control to implement quadruped
		  and hexapod gaits in a real self-reconfigurable robot made
		  from up to nine independent autonomous modules. We show
		  that this implementation scales and argue that it is
		  minimal, robust to module failures, to loss of
		  communication signals, and to interchange of modules. In
		  role based control all modules of the robot run identical
		  programs, but may play different roles. The modules decide
		  what role to play based on their local configuration and
		  information propagated down to them through the
		  configuration tree. A role consists of a cyclic motion, the
		  period of this motion, and a set of delays. The delays
		  specify the phase delay of the cyclic motions of the child
		  modules compared to the parent. These delays are used to
		  coordinate the motions of the individual module to obtain a
		  coordinated global behavior. },
  address	= {Bologna, Italy},
  author	= {Kasper St{\o}y and Wei-Min Shen and Peter Will},
  booktitle	= {Proc. First Intl. Joint Conf. on Autonomous Agents \&
		  Multiagent Systems},
  pages		= {813--820},
  title		= {How to Make a Self-Reconfigurable Robot Run},
  year		= {2002}
}