Self-assembly is a process through which an organized structure spontaneously forms from simple parts. This process is ubiquitous in nature, and its amazing power is documented by many fascinating instances operating at various spatial scales. Despite its crucial importance, little is known about the mechanisms underlying self-assembly and not much effort has been devoted to abstract higher level design principles. Taking inspiration from biological examples of self-assembly, we designed and built a series of modular robotic systems consisting of centimeter size autonomous plastic tiles capable of aggregation on the surface of water. According to the characteristics of the modules composing them, the systems were classified as “passive,” “active,” and “connectable.” We conducted experiments specifically aimed demonstrating the power of behavioral representation of each system with respect to the level of autonomy of its components. We focused mainly on the effect of the morphology (here shape) of the modules, in particular on the yield of the self-assembly process.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Leiman, P.G., Kanamaru, S., Mesyanzhinov, V.V., Arisaka, F., Rossmann, M.G.: Structure and morphogenesis of bacteriophage t4. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 60, 2356–2370 (2003)
Zlotnick, A.: Theoretical aspects of virus capsid assembly. Molecular Recognition 18, 479–490 (2005)
Fukuda, T., Kawauch, Y.: Cellular robotic system (cebot) as one of the realizations of self-organizing intelligent universal manipulator. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 662–667 (1990)
Nakano, K., Uchihashi, S., Umemoto, N., Nakagama, H.: An approach to evolutional system. In: First IEEE Conference on Evolutionary Computation (1994)
Chirikjian, G.S.: Kinematics of a metamorphic robotic system. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 449–455 (1994)
Murata, S., Kurokawa, H., Kokaji, S.: Self-assembling machine. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 441–448 (1994)
Murata, S., Kurokawa, H., Yoshida, E., Tomita, K., Kokaji, S.: A 3-D self-reconfigurable structure. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 432–439 (1998)
Murata, S., Tomita, K., Yoshida, E., Kurokawa, H., Kokaji, S.: Self-reconfigurable robot. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, pp. 911–917 (1999)
Yim, M.: New locomotion gaits. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, vol. 3, pp. 2508–2514 (1994)
Kotay, K., Rus, D., Vona, M., McGray, C.: The self-reconfiguring robotic molecule. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, vol. 1, pp. 424–431 (1998)
Rus, D., Vona, M.: Crystalline robots: Self-reconfiguration with compressible unit modules. Autonomous Robots 10(1), 107–124 (2001)
Castano, A., Behar, A., Will, P.M.: The conro modules for reconfigurable robots. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics 7(4), 403–409 (2002)
Jorgensen, M.W., Ostergaard, E.H., Lund, H.H.: Modular atron: Modules for a self-reconfigurable robot. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, vol. 2, pp. 2068–2073 (2004)
Zykov, V., Mutilinaios, E., Adams, B., Lipson, H.: Self-reproducing machines. Nature 435(7039), 163–164 (2005)
Penrose, L.S.: Self-reproducing. Scientific American 200–206, 105–114 (1959)
Hosokawa, K., Shimoyama, I., Miura, H.: Dynamics of self-assembling systems: Analogy with chemical kinetics. Artificial Life 1(4), 413–427 (1994)
Hosokawa, K., Shimoyama, I., Miura, H.: 2-d micro-self-assembly using the surface tension of water. Sensors and Actuators A 57, 117–125 (1996)
Bowden, N., Terfort, A., Carbeck, J., Whitesides, G.M.: Self-assembly of mesoscale objects into ordered two-dimensional arrays. Science 276, 233–235 (1997)
Grzybowski, B.A., Mechal Radkowski, Campbell, C.J., Lee, J.N., Whitesides, G.M.: Self-assembling fluidic machines. Applied Physics Letters 84, 1798–1800 (2004)
Grzybowski, B.A., Stone, H.A., Whitesides, G.M.: Dynamic self-assembly of magnetized, millimetre-sized objects rotating at a liquid-air interface. Nature 405, 1033 (2000)
Grzybowski, B.A., Winkleman, A., Wiles, J.A., Brumer, Y., Whitesides, G.M.: Electrostatic self-assembly of macroscopic crystals using contact electrification. Nature 2, 241–245 (2003)
Saitou, K.: Conformational switching in self-assembling mechanical systems. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 15, 510–520 (1999)
White, P., Kopanski, K., Lipson, H.: Stochastic self-reconfigurable cellular robotics. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, vol. 3, pp. 2888–2893 (2004)
White, P., Zykov, V., Bongard, J., Lipson, H.: Three dimensional stochastic reconfiguration of modular robots. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Robotics Science and Systems, pp. 161–168 (2005)
Shimizu, M., Ishiguro, A.: A modular robot that exploits a spontaneous connectivity control mechanism. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 2658–2663 (2005)
Bishop, J., Burden, S., Klavins, E., Kreisberg, R., Malone, W., Napp, N., Nguyen, T.: Programmable parts: A demonstration of the grammatical approach to self-organization. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 3684–3691 (2005)
Griffith, S., Goldwater, D., Jacobson, J.: Robotics: Self-replication from random parts. Nature 437, 636 (2005)
Mao, C., LaBean, T.H., Reif, J.H., Seeman, N.C.: Logical computation using algorithmic self-assembly. Nature 407, 493–496 (2000)
Rothemund, P.W.K.: Folding DNA to create nanoscale shapes and patterns. Nature 440(7082), 297–302 (2006)
Seeman, N.C.: DNA in a material world. Nature 421, 427–430 (2003)
Shih, W.M., Quispe, J.D., Joyce, G.F.: A 1.7-kilobase single-stranded dna that folds into a nanoscale octahedron. Nature 427, 618–621 (2004)
Winfree, E., Liu, F., Wenzler, L.A., Seeman, N.C.: Design and self-assembly of two-dimensional dna crystals. Nature 394, 539–544 (1998)
Yokoyama, T., Yokoyama, S., Kamikado, T., Okuno, Y., Mashiko, S.: Selective assembly on a surface of supramolecular aggregates with controlled size and shape. Nature 413, 619–621 (2001)
Boncheva, M., Ferrigno, R., Bruzewicz, D.A., Whitesides, G.M.: Plasticity in self-assembly: Templating generates functionally different circuits from a single precursor. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 42, 3368–3371 (2003)
Gracias, D.H., Tien, J., Breen, T.L., Hsu, C., Whitesides, G.M.: Forming electrical networks in three dimensions by self-assembly. Science 289, 1170–1172 (2000)
Wolfe, D.B., Snead, A., Mao, C., Bowden, N.B., Whitesides, G.M.: Mesoscale self-assembly: Capillary interactions when positive and negitive menisci have similar amplitudes. Langmuir 19, 2206–2214 (2003)
Miyashita, S., Kessler, M., Lungarella, M.: How morphology affects self-assembly in a stochastic modular robot. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3533–3538 (2008)
Pfeifer, R., Scheier, C.: Understanding intelligence. MIT, Cambridge (2001)
Hayakawa, J. (ed.): Time of an elephant, time of a mouse. CHUO-KORON-SHINSHA (1992)
Alberts, B., Hohnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K., Walter, P.: Molecular biology of the cell. Garland Science, UK (2002)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag London Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Miyashita, S., Lungarella, M., Pfeifer, R. (2009). Tribolon: Water-Based Self-Assembly Robots. In: Adamatzky, A., Komosinski, M. (eds) Artificial Life Models in Hardware. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-530-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-530-7_8
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-84882-529-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-84882-530-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)