No abstract

The problem addressed is the distributed reconfiguration of a metamorphic robot system composed of any number of two dimensional robots (modules)

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Mediated Matter Group is honing its research into robotic swarm printing by focusing its efforts on material sophistication, or ‘tunability’, and communication or coordination between fabrication units. Here, the group's Neri Oxman, Jorge Duro‐Royo, Steven Keating, Ben Peters and Elizabeth Tsai illustrate this by describing three case studies that investigate robotically controlled additive fabrication at architectural scales.

Abstract-The problem addressed is the distributed reconfiguration of a metamorphic robot system composed of any number of two dimensional robots (modules). The initial configuration we consider is a straight chain of modules, while the goal configuration satisfies a simple admissibility condition. Our reconfiguration strategy depends on finding a contiguous path of cells, called a substrate path, that spans the goal configuration. Modules fill in this substrate path and then move along the path to fill in the remainder of the goal without collision or deadlock.In this paper, we address the problem of reconfiguration when a single obstacle is embedded in the goal environment. We introduce a classification for traversable surfaces which allows for coherence in defining admissibility characteristics for various objects in the hexagonal grid. We present algorithms to 1) determine if an obstacle enveloped in the goal fulfills a simple admissibility requirement, 2) include an admissible obstacle in a substrate path, and 3) accomplish distributed reconfiguration.

No abstract