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Distributed amorphous ramp construction in unstructured environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2014

Nils Napp  and
Radhika Nagpal
Nils Napp*
Affiliation:
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Radhika Nagpal
Affiliation:
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: nnapp@wyss.harvard.edu
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Summary

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We present a model of construction using iterative amorphous depositions and give a distributed algorithm to reliably build ramps in unstructured environments. The relatively simple local strategy for interacting with irregularly shaped, partially built structures gives rise to robust adaptive global properties. We illustrate the algorithm in both single robot and multi-robot cases via simulations and describe how to solve key technical challenges to implementing this algorithm via a robotic prototype.

Keywords

Control of robotic systemsBioinspired robotsMobile robotsMulti-robot systemsNovel applications of robotics

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 32 , Issue 2: Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS). , March 2014 , pp. 279 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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