Let’s All Pull Together: Principles for Sharing Large Loads in Microrobot Teams

Christensen, David L.; Suresh, Srinivasan A.; Hahm, Katie S.; Cutkosky, Mark R.

doi:10.1109/lra.2016.2530314

Cited by 15 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Collective transport behaviours have previously been studied with the Kilobot robotic platform [ 17 ] and the Bristlebot, Hexapod and μ Tug platforms [ 18 ]. Rubenstein et al [ 17 ] found that the transport speed remains the same regardless of team size when the payload mass per robot is kept constant.…”

Section: Two Models Of Ant Behaviours and The Resulting Payload Speedmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multi-robot replication of ant collective towing behaviours

et al. 2018

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In this work, teams of small mobile robots are used to test hypotheses about cooperative transport by ants. This study attempts to explain a decrease in steady-state transport speed with increasing team size that was previously observed in the ant Novomessor cockerelli. Two models of one-dimensional collective towing are compared: one in which transporters with different maximum speeds pull the payload with continuous, variable forces and another in which transporters with identical speeds pull with intermittent, unsynchronized forces. A statistical analysis of ant data supports the hypothesis that ants behave according to the first model, in which the steady-state transport speed is the maximum speed of the slowest teammate. By contrast, the ant data are not consistent with the second model, which predicts constant speed regardless of team size. To verify these predictions, the ant behaviours in each model are translated into decentralized controllers and implemented on teams of two to four robots. The controller for the first model incorporates a real-time reinforcement learning algorithm that successfully reproduces the observed relationship between ant team size and transport speed. The controller for the second model yields the predicted invariance of transport speed with team size. These results show the value of robotic swarms for testing mechanistic hypotheses about biological collectives.

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Section: Two Models Of Ant Behaviours and The Resulting Payload Speedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this paper did not take into account out-of-phase stepping by the robots. Christensen et al [ 18 ] investigated the effect of uncoordinated stepping on effective force per robot during group towing. They found no effect for the case where the robots’ gait is non-impulsive; e.g.…”

Section: Two Models Of Ant Behaviours and The Resulting Payload Speedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-robot replication of ant collective towing behaviours

et al. 2018

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“…In comparison, the force/weight ratios for beetles pushing are considerably higher. The maximum tugging force for FlyCroTugs on a smooth surface is essentially the same as for mTugs (21), but they are heavier, which puts them roughly along the trend line for beetles that push.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Actuators were as in (21). A DS65K MSK servo was used as a winch, circumventing the potentiometer and position control to operate it as a continuous motor with gear train.…”

Section: Tugging and Ground Locomotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forceful manipulation with micro air vehicles

et al. 2018

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Micro air vehicles (MAVs) are finding use across an expanding range of applications. However, when interacting with the environment, they are limited by the maximum thrust they can produce. Here, we describe FlyCroTugs, a class of robots that adds to the mobility of MAVs the capability of forceful tugging up to 40 times their mass while adhering to a surface. This class of MAVs, which finds inspiration in the prey transportation strategy of wasps, exploits controllable adhesion or microspines to firmly adhere to the ground and then uses a winch to pull heavy objects. The combination of flight and adhesion for tugging creates a class of 100-gram multimodal MAVs that can rapidly traverse cluttered three-dimensional terrain and exert forces that affect human-scale environments. We discuss the energetics and scalability of this approach and demonstrate it for lifting a sensor into a partially collapsed building. We also demonstrate a team of two FlyCroTugs equipped with specialized end effectors for rotating a lever handle and opening a heavy door.

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“…Compared to other adhesion, such as suction, magnetic, and electrostatic forces, gecko's dry adhesion performs well on various types of surface and has the advantage of controllable (on–off) attachment . Many researchers have fabricated synthetic micro/nanostructured adhesives inspired by gecko foot hairs and explored adhesion mechanism, promoting the applications in many fields, such as debris cleaning in space, ground compliant micromanipulators or robotic gripper, climbing robot, and bioinspired surgical graspers . Gecko synthetic adhesives (GSAs) can adhere to the noncooperative targets and provide a strong and controllable adhesion, which will fit more for capturing satellites and removing space debris than traditional rigid capturing or net capturing .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis and Measurement of Adhesive Behavior for Gecko‐Inspired Synthetic Microwedge Structure

Chu

Wang

Xiao

et al. 2019

Adv Materials Inter

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has the advantage of controllable (on-off) attachment. [4][5][6] Many researchers have fabricated synthetic micro/nanostructured adhesives inspired by gecko foot hairs and explored adhesion mechanism, [7][8][9] promoting the applications in many fields, such as debris cleaning in space, [10] ground compliant micromanipulators [11][12][13][14] or robotic gripper, [15,16] climbing robot, [17][18][19] and bioinspired surgical graspers. [20] Gecko synthetic adhesives (GSAs) can adhere to the noncooperative targets and provide a strong and controllable adhesion, which will fit more for capturing satellites and removing space debris than traditional rigid capturing or net capturing. [21] Besides, the adhesion method can also be applied in ground compliant micromanipulators, which is safe and gentle for transporting fragile and flexible parts, and easy to be integrated into micromanipulators. Meanwhile, many scientists work on climbing robots with GSAs, which will help emergency workers to find and rescue victims or inspect and repair in dangerous environment. They can be combined in teams to pull large loads. Moreover, in biomedicine, compared with conventional surgical graspers, bioinspired surgical graspers with GSAs have less damage to human tissue.The adhesion mechanism could give us better insight into dry adhesives and promote application in above fields. [22,23] So it is valuable to mention that scholars have gradually realized that the attachment strength and controllable adhesion are dependent on dimensions and deformations of synthetic fibrillary structure induced by normal and shear loads, which can actively control the contact area between the structure and the substrate. [12,[24][25][26] To further explore the adhesion mechanism, many scientists have explored and established the following adhesive models.The physical mechanism of the GSAs has been interpreted from different perspectives. The Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) model [3] is classic, which was used earlier for the calculation of adhesion force. It assumed a single fiber as a cylinder with spherical tip and ignored the mechanical deformation of the tip. Therefore, the model was more suitable for the fiber of low aspect ratio. Tian et al. [27] proposed a spatula-shaped peel zone model based on intermolecular force, which analyzed theoretically the gecko's locomotion (on-off) mechanism of the attachment (on) and detachment (off). In this model, normal Synthetic microwedge adhesive inspired by gecko has great advantages in its prominent adhesion property and controllability. Clarifying the adhesion mechanism is significant for designing structure and enhancing performance. However, previous investigations have not given a thorough exposition in the adhesion mechanism of microwedge structure, especially, the complex relationship among shear load, contact area, and normal adhesion. In this paper, aiming to clarify the relationship mentioned above, a novel microwedge adhesive representation combined profile-constructed elastic beam model with a peel zone...

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Let’s All Pull Together: Principles for Sharing Large Loads in Microrobot Teams

Cited by 15 publications

References 23 publications

Multi-robot replication of ant collective towing behaviours

Multi-robot replication of ant collective towing behaviours

Forceful manipulation with micro air vehicles

Analysis and Measurement of Adhesive Behavior for Gecko‐Inspired Synthetic Microwedge Structure

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