e-space
Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository

    Devobot: From Biological Morphogenesis to Morphogenetic Swarm Robotics

    Gaget, Antoine Claude Dan (2021) Devobot: From Biological Morphogenesis to Morphogenetic Swarm Robotics. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

    [img]
    Preview

    Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

    Download (36MB) | Preview

    Abstract

    Complex systems are composed of a large number of relatively simple entities interacting with each other and their environment. From those entities and interactions emerge new and often unpredictable collective structures. Complex systems are widely present in nature, from cells and living organisms to human societies. A major biological process behind this emergence in natural complex systems is morphogenesis, which refers mainly, although not exclusively, to shape development in multicellular organisms. Inspired by morphogenesis, the field of Morphogenetic Engineering (ME) aims to design a system’s global architecture and behaviour in a bottom-up fashion from the self-organisation of a myriad of small components. In particular, Morphogenetic Robotics (MR) strives to apply ME to Swarm Robotics in order to create robot collectives exhibiting morphogenetic properties. While most MR works focus on small and cheap hardware, such as Kilobots, only few or them investigate swarms of mobile and more “intelligent” robot models. In this thesis, we present two original works involving higher-end MR swarms based on the PsiSwarm platform, a two-wheeled saucer-size robot running the Mbed operating system. First, we describe a novel distributed algorithm capable of growing a densely packed “multi-robot organism” out of a group of 40 PsiSwarms, based on ME principles. Then, in another study closer to Modular Robotics (MoR), and taking inspiration from “programmable network growth”, we demonstrate the self-organisation of (virtual) branched structures among a flock of robots. Both works use MORSE, a realistic simulation tool, while a path toward crossing the “reality gap” is shown by preliminary experiments conducted using real hardware.

    Impact and Reach

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    36Downloads
    6 month trend
    84Hits

    Additional statistics for this dataset are available via IRStats2.

    Repository staff only

    Edit record Edit record