Staging the Self-Assembly Process: Inspiration from Biological Development

Abstract

One of the practical challenges facing the creation of self-assembling systems is being able to exploit a limited set of fixed components and their bonding mechanisms. The method of staging divides the self-assembly process into time intervals, during which components can be added to, or removed from, an environment at each interval. Staging addresses the challenge of using components that lack plasticity by encoding the construction of a target structure in the staging algorithm itself and not exclusively in the design of the components. Previous staging strategies do not consider the interplay between component physical features (morphological information). In this work we use morphological information to stage the self-assembly process, during which components can only be added to their environment at each time interval, to demonstrate our concept. Four experiments are presented, which use heterogeneous, passive, mechanical components that are fabricated using 3D printing. Two orbital shaking environments are used to provide energy to the components and to investigate the role of morphological information with component movement in either two or three spatial dimensions. The benefit of our staging strategy is shown by reducing assembly errors and exploiting bonding mechanisms with rotational properties. As well, a doglike target structure is used to demonstrate in theory how component information used at an earlier time interval can be reused at a later time interval, inspired by the use of a body plan in biological development. We propose that a staged body plan is one method toward scaling self-assembling systems with many interacting components. The experiments and body plan example demonstrate, as proof of concept, that staging enables the self-assembly of more complex morphologies not otherwise possible.

Photomorphogenesis for robot self-assembly: adaptivity, collective decision-making, and self-repair

“…In passive self-assembly the entities are not self-propelled but excited by external forces, such as diffusion, currents in a fluid, or capillary forces. Although sometimes studied at the macroscale [42], passive elements are typically considered for selfassembly at the micro or nanoscale [43]. For example, there are studies on 'complex supramolecular structures … by the algorithmic self-assembly of DNA tiles' [44].…”

Self-assembly

“…• Staging addresses this challenge by dividing the self-assembly process into time intervals, and encodes the construction of a target structure into the staging algorithm itself, and not exclusively into the design of the components [13] Morphology and Error Prevention [10,12] Staged Self-Assembly GECCO 2014 Tutorial: Self-Assembly 3D Staged Self-Assembly…”

“…Staged Self-Assembly GECCO 2014 Tutorial: Self-Assembly 67 [12] Synthetic Development Staged Self-Assembly GECCO 2014 Tutorial: Self-Assembly 68 • Synthetic Development:…”