Paper by Erik D. Demaine

Reference:

MIT–NASA Space Robots Team, Josh Brunner, Kenneth C. Cheung, Erik D. Demaine, Jenny Diomidova, Christine Gregg, Della H. Hendrickson, and Irina Kostitsyna, “Reconfiguration Algorithms for Cubic Modular Robots with Realistic Movement Constraints”, in Proceedings of the 19th Scandinavian Symposium and Workshops on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2024), edited by Hans L. Bodlaender, LIPIcs, volume 294, Helsinki, Finland, June 12–14, 2024, 34:1–34:18.

BibTeX

@InProceedings{SpaceRobots_SWAT2024,
  key           = {MIT},
  AUTHOR        = {{MIT--NASA Space Robots Team} and Josh Brunner and Kenneth C. Cheung and Erik D. Demaine and Jenny Diomidova and Christine Gregg and Della H. Hendrickson and Irina Kostitsyna},
  TITLE         = {Reconfiguration Algorithms for Cubic Modular Robots with Realistic Movement Constraints},
  BOOKTITLE     = {Proceedings of the 19th Scandinavian Symposium and Workshops on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2024)},
  bookurl       = {https://swat2024.github.io/website/},
  EDITOR        = {Hans L. Bodlaender},
  SERIES        = {LIPIcs},
  VOLUME        = 294,
  ADDRESS       = {Helsinki, Finland},
  MONTH         = {June 12--14},
  YEAR          = 2024,
  PAGES         = {34:1--34:18},

  withstudent   = 1,
  length        = {18 pages},
  doi           = {https://dx.doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2024.34},
  dblp          = {https://dblp.org/rec/conf/swat/TeamBCDDGHK24},
  comments      = {This paper is also available from <A HREF="https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2024.34">LIPIcs</A> and as <A HREF="https://arXiv.org/abs/2405.15724">arXiv:2405.15724</A>.},
}

Abstract:

We introduce and analyze a model for self-reconfigurable robots made up of unit-cube modules. Compared to past models, our model aims to newly capture two important practical aspects of real-world robots. First, modules often do not occupy an exact unit cube, but rather have features like bumps extending outside the allotted space so that modules can interlock. Thus, for example, our model forbids modules from squeezing in between two other modules that are one unit distance apart. Second, our model captures the practical scenario of many passive modules assembled by a single robot, instead of requiring all modules to be able to move on their own.

We prove two universality results. First, with a supply of auxiliary modules, we show that any connected polycube structure can be constructed by a carefully aligned plane sweep. Second, without additional modules, we show how to construct any structure for which a natural notion of external feature size is at least a constant; this property largely consolidates forbidden-pattern properties used in previous works on reconfigurable modular robots.

Comments:

This paper is also available from LIPIcs and as arXiv:2405.15724.

Length:

The paper is 18 pages.

Availability:

The paper is available in PDF (15224k).

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