Journal
SCIENCE ROBOTICS
Volume 6, Issue 56, Pages -Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.abf1628
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Funding
- NSF Division of Materials Research grant [1933283]
- Army Research Office Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grant [W911NF1910233]
- Dunn Family Professorship
- U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) [W911NF1910233] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1933283] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The study highlights the benefits of a reconfigurable swarm of quadruped robots, showing that cooperation among individuals can enhance performance, especially when facing complex terrains. The research demonstrates that diverse tasks can be achieved through the interaction of relatively simple units in a swarm of robots.
Swarms of ground-based robots are presently limited to relatively simple environments, which we attribute in part to the lack of locomotor capabilities needed to traverse complex terrain. To advance the field of terradynamically capable swarming robotics, inspired by the capabilities of multilegged organisms, we hypothesize that legged robots consisting of reversibly chainable modular units with appropriate passive perturbation management mechanisms can perform diverse tasks in variable terrain without complex control and sensing. Here, we report a reconfigurable swarm of identical low-cost quadruped robots (with directionally flexible legs and tail) that can be linked on demand and autonomously. When tasks become terradynamically challenging for individuals to perform alone, the individuals suffer performance degradation. A systematic study of performance of linked units leads to new discoveries of the emergent obstacle navigation capabilities of multilegged robots. We also demonstrate the swarm capabilities through multirobot object transport. In summary, we argue that improvement capabilities of terrestrial swarms of robots can be achieved via the judicious interaction of relatively simple units.
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