Evolved and Designed Self-Reproducing Modular Robotics

Long-term physical survivability of most robotic systems today is achieved through durable hardware. In contrast, most biological systems are not made of robust materials; long-term sustainability and evolutionary adaptation in nature are provided through processes of self-repair and, ultimately, self-reproduction. Here we demonstrate a large space of possible robots capable of autonomous self-reproduction. These robots are composed of actuated modules equipped with electromagnets to selectively control the morphology of the robotic assembly. We show a variety of 2-D and 3-D machines from 3 to 2n modules, and two physical implementations that each achieves two generations of reproduction. We show both automatically generated and manually designed morphologies

[1]  Satoshi Murata,et al.  Self-reconfigurable robots , 2007, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[2]  L. Penrose,et al.  Self-Reproducing Machines , 1959 .

[3]  Barry McMullin,et al.  John von Neumann and the Evolutionary Growth of Complexity: Looking Backward, Looking Forward , 2000, Artificial Life.

[4]  Hod Lipson,et al.  Robotics: Self-reproducing machines , 2005, Nature.

[5]  Gregory S. Chirikjian,et al.  Kinematics of a metamorphic robotic system , 1994, Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[6]  Zack J. Butler,et al.  Self-reconfiguring robots , 2002, CACM.

[7]  Ying Zhang,et al.  Modular Reconfigurable Robots in Space Applications , 2003, Auton. Robots.

[8]  Henrik Hautop Lund,et al.  Co-evolving Complex Robot Behavior , 2003, ICES.

[9]  Wei-Min Shen,et al.  Using role-based control to produce locomotion in chain-type self-reconfigurable robots , 2002 .

[10]  Robert A. Freitas,et al.  Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines , 2004 .

[11]  Jarle Breivik,et al.  Self-Organization of Template-Replicating Polymers and the Spontaneous Rise of Genetic Information , 2001, Entropy.

[12]  Daniela Rus,et al.  A Basis for Self-Repair Robots Using Self-Reconguring Crystal Modules , 2000 .

[13]  Gregory S. Chirikjian,et al.  Useful metrics for modular robot motion planning , 1997, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[14]  Jackman,et al.  Design and fabrication of topologically complex, three-dimensional microstructures , 1998, Science.

[15]  Gregory S. Chirikjian,et al.  Toward Self-replicating Robots , 2002, ISER.

[16]  J. Jacobs,et al.  Coexistence of similar zooplankton species by differential adaptation to reproduction and escape, in an environment with fluctuating food and enemy densities. I. A model , 1977, Oecologia.

[17]  Hod Lipson,et al.  Spontaneous Emergence of Self-Replicating Structures in Molecube Automata , 2005 .

[18]  Satoshi Murata,et al.  Distributed replication algorithms for self-reconfiguring modular robots , 2002, DARS.

[19]  N. Seeman,et al.  Design and self-assembly of two-dimensional DNA crystals , 1998, Nature.

[20]  Henrik Hautop Lund,et al.  Modular ATRON: modules for a self-reconfigurable robot , 2004, 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37566).

[21]  Eiichi Yoshida,et al.  M-TRAN: self-reconfigurable modular robotic system , 2002 .

[22]  Phil Husbands,et al.  Designed and Evolved Blueprints For Physical Self-Replicating Machines , 2004 .

[23]  Hod Lipson,et al.  A Universal Framework for Self-Replication , 2003, ECAL.

[24]  Robert Freitas,et al.  A SELF-REPLICATING, GROWING LUNAR FACTORY , 1981 .

[25]  Gregory S. Chirikjian,et al.  Self-replicating robots for lunar development , 2002 .

[26]  E. McConkey,et al.  How many proteins are there in a typical mammalian cell? , 1982, Clinical chemistry.

[27]  Eiichi Yoshida,et al.  Self-Repairing Mechanical Systems , 2001, Auton. Robots.

[28]  Saul Griffith,et al.  Robotics: Self-replication from random parts , 2005, Nature.

[29]  Arthur W. Burks,et al.  VON NEUMANN'S SELF-REPRODUCING AUTOMATA , 1969 .

[30]  Mark Moll,et al.  SUPERBOT: A Deployable, Multi-Functional, and Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robotic System , 2006, 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[31]  J. Suthakorn,et al.  An autonomous self-replicating robotic system , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM 2003).

[32]  Ying Zhang,et al.  Robotics: modular robots , 2002 .

[33]  Moshe Sipper,et al.  Fifty Years of Research on Self-Replication: An Overview , 1998, Artificial Life.

[34]  Wei-Min Shen,et al.  CONRO: Towards Deployable Robots with Inter-Robots Metamorphic Capabilities , 2000, Auton. Robots.

[35]  Radhika Nagpal,et al.  Self-Reconfiguration Using Directed Growth , 2004, DARS.