Doyle, M., Marques, J., Vandermeulen, I. et al. (5 more authors) (2021) Modular fluidic propulsion robots. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 37 (2). pp. 532-549. ISSN 1552-3098
Abstract
We propose a novel concept for modular robots, termed modular fluidic propulsion (MFP), which promises to combine effective propulsion, a large reconfiguration space, and a scalable design. MFP robots are modular fluid networks. To propel, they route fluid through themselves. In this article, both hydraulic and pneumatic implementations are considered. The robots move towards a goal by way of a decentralized controller that runs independently on each module face, uses two bits of sensory information and requires neither run-time memory, nor communication. We prove that 2-D MFP robots reach the goal when of orthogonally convex shape, or reach a morphology-dependent distance from it when of arbitrary shape. We present a 2-D hydraulic MFP prototype and show, experimentally, that it succeeds in reaching the goal in at least 90% of trials, and that 71% less energy is expended when modules can communicate. Moreover, in simulations with 3-D hydraulic MFP robots, the decentralized controller performs almost as well as a state-of-the-art and centralized controller. Given the simplicity of the hardware requirements, the MFP concept could pave the way for modular robots to be used at sub-centimeter-scale, where effective modular propulsion systems have not been demonstrated.
Metadata
Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | ||||
Keywords: | Distributed control; hydraulic propulsion; modular reconfigurable robots; pneumatic propulsion | ||||
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield | ||||
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering (Sheffield) | ||||
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Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield | ||||
Date Deposited: | 21 Oct 2020 13:26 | ||||
Last Modified: | 28 Jan 2022 14:42 | ||||
Status: | Published | ||||
Publisher: | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | ||||
Refereed: | Yes | ||||
Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2020.3031880 |