Robot swarms have been shown to improve the ability of individual robots by inter-robot collaboration. In this paper, we present the PuzzleBots - a low-cost robotic swarm system where robots can physically couple with each other to form functional structures with minimum energy consumption while maintaining individual mobility to navigate within the environment. Each robot has knobs and holes along the sides of its body so that the robots can couple by inserting the knobs into the holes. We present the characterization of knob design and the result of gap-crossing behavior with up to nine robots. We show with hardware experiments that the robots are able to couple with each other to cross gaps and decouple to perform individual tasks. We anticipate the PuzzleBots will be useful in unstructured environments as individuals and coupled systems in real-world applications.
翻译:机器人群已经显示通过机器人间协作提高个体机器人的能力。 在本文中, 我们展示了“ 拼图机器人群” —— 一个低成本机器人群系统, 机器人可以相互结合, 形成功能性结构, 使用最少的能源消耗量, 同时保持个人在环境中航行的机动性。 每个机器人在身体的两侧都有手杖和孔, 这样机器人就可以通过在洞洞中插入手杖来组合。 我们展示了 knob 设计的特点, 以及最多九个机器人之间差异交错行为的结果。 我们通过硬件实验显示, 机器人能够相互结合, 来跨越空白, 并进行单个任务。 我们预计, 拼图将在非结构环境中作为个人和现实世界应用中的组合系统而有用 。