Living creatures and machines interact with the world through their morphology and motions. Recent advances in creating bio-inspired morphing robots and machines have led to the study of variable geometry truss (VGT), structures that can approximate arbitrary geometries and has large degree of freedom to deform. However, they are limited to simple geometries and motions due to the excessively complex control system. While a recent work PneuMesh solves this challenge with a novel VGT design that introduces a selective channel connection strategy, it imposes new challenge in identifying effective channel groupings and control methods. Building on top of the hardware concept presented in PneuMesh, we frame the challenge into a co-design problem and introduce a learning-based model to find a sub-optimal design. Specifically, given an initial truss structure provided by a human designer, we first adopt a genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize the channel grouping, and then couple GA with reinforcement learning (RL) for the control. The model is tailored to the PneuMesh system with customized initialization, mutation and selection functions, as well as the customized translation-invariant state vector for reinforcement learning. The result shows that our method enables a robotic table-based VGT to achieve various motions with a limited number of control inputs. The table is trained to move, lower its body or tilt its tabletop to accommodate multiple use cases such as benefiting kids and painters to use it in different shape states, allowing inclusive and adaptive design through morphing trusses.
翻译:活生物体和机器通过其形态和动作与世界互动。 最近在创建由生物启发的变形机器人和机器方面的进展导致对可变几何三角体(VGT)的研究,这些结构可以近似任意的几何三角体,并有很大程度的变形自由。 然而,由于控制系统过于复杂,它们仅限于简单的外观和运动。虽然最近的一项工作Pneumemesh通过引入选择性频道连接战略的新型VGT设计解决了这一挑战,但它在确定有效的频道组合和控制方法方面提出了新的挑战。在Pnememesh提出的硬件概念之上,我们将挑战设置为共同设计问题,并引入一个基于学习的模型,以寻找亚优度的设计。具体地说,鉴于人类设计师提供的初始外观结构,我们首先采用了一种基因算法(GAGA)来优化频道组合,然后将GA与强化学习(RL)一起进行控制。 该模型适合PneemememeMEsh系统, 以定制的初始化、突变和选择功能为基础, 以及定制的翻译- 将挑战设置为共同设计, 并引入一个基于定制的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状模型设计模型模型模型, 并引入一个基于定制的形状设计模型设计模型设计模型, 并引入一个以寻找的形状的形状的形状的形状设计模型, 的形状的形状的形状的模型将一个基于的形状的设计模型, 以找到一个基于的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的设计模型的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的设计模型, 的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的设计模型, 来找到一个以寻找的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状的形状