Locomoting robots composed of immobile robots

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a collective of simple, immobile robots can achieve directed movement through internal collisions and external stimuli, showcasing emergent locomotion in robotic materials.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach where low-cost, immobile robots form a collective that can move directionally by harnessing internal collisions and external light cues.

Findings

Robotic materials can achieve diffusive locomotion through internal collisions.

Directed movement is possible by modulating material properties in response to light.

Experimental results show movement bias towards light sources.

Abstract

Robotic materials are multi-robot systems formulated to leverage the low-order computation and actuation of the constituents to manipulate the high-order behavior of the entire material. We study the behaviors of ensembles composed of smart active particles, smarticles. Smarticles are small, low cost robots equipped with basic actuation and sensing abilities that are individually incapable of rotating or displacing. We demonstrate that a "supersmarticle", composed of many smarticles constrained within a bounding membrane, can harness the internal collisions of the robotic material among the constituents and the membrane to achieve diffusive locomotion. The emergent diffusion can be directed by modulating the robotic material properties in response to a light source, analogous to biological phototaxis. The light source introduces asymmetries within the robotic material, resulting in modified populations of interaction modes and dynamics which ultimately result in supersmarticle biased locomotion. We present experimental methods and results for the robotic material which moves with a directed displacement in response to a light source.