Mergeable nervous systems for robots

Nithin Mathews, Anders Lyhne Christensen, Rehan O’Grady, Francesco Mondada and Marco Dorigo ()
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Nithin Mathews: IRIDIA, CoDE, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Anders Lyhne Christensen: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Instituto de Telecomunicações
Rehan O’Grady: IRIDIA, CoDE, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Francesco Mondada: Institut de Microinformatique (IMT), Faculté des Sciences et Technique de l’Ingénieur (STI), Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
Marco Dorigo: IRIDIA, CoDE, Université Libre de Bruxelles

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Robots have the potential to display a higher degree of lifetime morphological adaptation than natural organisms. By adopting a modular approach, robots with different capabilities, shapes, and sizes could, in theory, construct and reconfigure themselves as required. However, current modular robots have only been able to display a limited range of hardwired behaviors because they rely solely on distributed control. Here, we present robots whose bodies and control systems can merge to form entirely new robots that retain full sensorimotor control. Our control paradigm enables robots to exhibit properties that go beyond those of any existing machine or of any biological organism: the robots we present can merge to form larger bodies with a single centralized controller, split into separate bodies with independent controllers, and self-heal by removing or replacing malfunctioning body parts. This work takes us closer to robots that can autonomously change their size, form and function.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00109-2

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