Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The International Journal of Robotics Research
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Campbell, J.
Right arrow Articles by Pillai, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Collective Actuation

Jason Campbell

Intel Research 4720 Forbes Avenue Suite 410, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA, jason.d.campbell{at}intel.com

Padmanabhan Pillai

Intel Research 4720 Forbes Avenue Suite 410, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA, padmanabhan.s.pillai{at}intel.com

Modular robot designers confront inherent tradeoffs between size and power. Smaller, more numerous modules increase the adaptability of a given volume or mass of robot, allowing the aggregate robot to take on a wider variety of configurations, but do so at a cost of reducing the power and complexity budget of each module. Fewer, larger modules can incorporate more powerful actuators and stronger hinges, but at a cost of overspecializing the resulting robot in favor of corresponding uses. In this paper we describe a technique for coordinating the efforts of many tiny modules to achieve forces and movements larger than those possible for individual modules. In a broad sense, our work aims to make actuator capacity and range at least partly fungible by algorithm design and ensemble topology, rather than being immutable properties of a particular module design. An important aspect of this technique is its ability to bend complex and large-scale structures and to realize the equivalent of large-scale joints. By enabling scalable joints, and the "muscles" that could actuate larger structures, our work makes it more likely that modular robot ensembles can successfully be scaled up in number and down in size.

Key Words: cellular and modular robotics

The International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 27, No. 3-4, 299-314 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0278364907085561
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?