RI-Small: Autonomous Microrobotic Swarms

RI-Small：自主微型机器人群

• 批准号: 0811571
• 负责人: Robert Wood
• 金额: $ 40.5万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-01 至 2012-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0811571&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RI; Small; Autonomous; Microrobotic; Swarms

In nature, social insects have shown how mobility and multiplicity can be dramatically exploited: small ants effectively forage large areas, while tiny termites construct structures a million times their own size. Yet engineering a robotic swarm of similar complexity remains a significant challenge; we lack a fundamental understanding of how to effectively implement and leverage swarm behaviors. In this research we will design and implement a programmable microrobot swarm capable of robust collective intelligence in complex environments. Our project will focus on mobility and multiplicity: we seek to understand how scaling the agent size down and the swarm size up impacts the ability of collective networked systems. Our proposed work has two key threads: 1) the development of highly mobile insect-scale microrobots with biologically-derived locomotion principles and 2) the design and mathematical analysis of robust decentralized control paradigms which are broadly applicable to many self-organizing complex networks. To validate our approach, we will integrate the mechanical study of mobility and the algorithmic study of collectives through a set of annual demonstrations of microrobot swarms, which will enable continuous feedback between theory and engineering.

在自然界中，社会昆虫已经表明了如何显着利用活动能力和多重性：小蚂蚁有效地觅食大面积，而小白蚁则建造了自身规模的一百万倍。然而，工程具有相似复杂性的机器人群仍然是一个重大挑战。我们缺乏对如何有效实施和利用群体行为的基本理解。在这项研究中，我们将设计并实施一个可编程的微型机器人群，能够在复杂的环境中进行健壮的集体智能。我们的项目将重点放在移动性和多重性上：我们试图了解缩放代理大小和群体大小如何影响集体网络系统的能力。我们提出的工作有两个关键线程：1）具有生物学上衍生的运动原理的高度移动昆虫级微型机器人的开发，以及2）对可靠分散的控制范式的设计和数学分析，这些范式广泛适用于许多自我组织的复杂网络。为了验证我们的方法，我们将通过一组微型机器人群的年度演示来整合迁移率和集体算法研究的机械研究，这将使理论与工程之间的持续反馈。