| 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. |
