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Design of a Decentralized Strategy for Layered Self-Assembly of 3D Structures Using Robotic Blocks

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Abstract

In self-assembly tasks, local interactions between robotic structure parts induce a collective behaviour that guides the robots to assume a desired shape. In this work, we propose a self-assembly strategy for building three-dimensional structures using robotic blocks. The assembly is executed layer-by-layer, and each layer grows from a single position called seed position. The robots follow a set of pre-programmed behaviours to perform the assembly task. Moreover, each robot is only capable of local sensing and empty positions in the structure are not known a priori. Robots carry a blueprint of the structure, containing relative coordinates for where blocks should be placed. A graph is extrapolated from the blueprint and used to define the structural properties necessary to analyze correctness and efficiency of the proposed technique. Simulated results show that the distance that robots travelled during assembly is likely to be the shortest path possible. Also, graph-based metrics are applied to evaluate the selection of different seed positions, drawing a relationship between structure blueprint and the distance travelled by the robots. Finally, physical experiments demonstrate the applicability of the proposed algorithms in realistic scenarios.

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Funding

This work was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada through a grant held by Dr. Sidney Givigi under the Discovery Grant Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Royal Military College of Canada, 13 General Crerar Crescent, Kingston, K7K 7B4, Ontario, Canada

    Kléber Cabral, Peter Jardine & Sidney Givigi

  2. School of Computing, Queen’s University, 557 Goodwin Hall, Kingston, K7L 2N8, Ontario, Canada

    Tanvir Kaykobad & Sidney Givigi

  3. Department of Computer Science, St. Francis Xavier University, 4130 University Ave, Antigonish, B2G 2W5, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Jean-Alexis Delamer

Authors
  1. Kléber Cabral
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  2. Tanvir Kaykobad
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  4. Peter Jardine
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  5. Sidney Givigi
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the work conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Dr. Kléber Cabral and Dr. Jean-Alexis Delamer. Analysis and proofs were performed by Dr. Kléber Cabral, Mr. Tanvir Kaykobad, Dr. Jardine and Dr. Givigi. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Dr. Kléber Cabral and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sidney Givigi.

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Dr. Cabral, Mr. Kaykobad, Dr. Delamer, Dr. Jardine, and Dr. Givigi declare they have no financial interests.

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Cabral, K., Kaykobad, T., Delamer, JA. et al. Design of a Decentralized Strategy for Layered Self-Assembly of 3D Structures Using Robotic Blocks. J Intell Robot Syst 107, 54 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-023-01825-2

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