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Benelux Conference on Artificial Intelligence

BNAIC/Benelearn 2020: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning pp 188–202Cite as

Swarm Construction Coordinated Through the Building Material

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1398))

Abstract

This paper demonstrates a swarm robotics construction system where the intelligence that coordinates construction has been moved from the robots to an advanced building material. This building material, that we call Stigmergic Blocks, is capable of computation and local communication. Using comprehensive simulation models based on real hardware, we investigate approaches to improving the efficiency and flexibility of a swarm robotics construction system.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Video: hardware-demo.mp4 at https://osf.io/ve3za/.

  2. 2.

    Videos: dcp-single-robot.mp4 and dcp-multiple-robots.mp4 at https://osf.io/9562j/ and https://osf.io/4cpyh/.

    Source code: dcp-single-robot.zip and dcp-multiple-robots.zip at https://osf.io/j2pqh/ and https://osf.io/nasf6/.

  3. 3.

    Videos: gc-standard-algorithm.mp4 and gc-block-algorithm.mp4 at https://osf.io/5h9cs/ and https://osf.io/cdvty/.

    Source code: gc-standard-algorithm.zip and gc-block-algorithm.zip at https://osf.io/we754/ and https://osf.io/3znua/.

  4. 4.

    Videos: fc-standard-algorithm.mp4 and fc-block-algorithm.mp4 at https://osf.io/ycxes/ and https://osf.io/tvhs2/.

    Source code: fc-standard-algorithm.zip and fc-block-algorithm.zip at https://osf.io/gf94r/ and https://osf.io/kjhu7/.

  5. 5.

    Video: dcp-fault-tolerance.mp4 at https://osf.io/mvhk6/.

    Source code: dcp-fault-tolerance.zip at https://osf.io/scm7q/.

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Acknowledgements

This work is partially supported by the Program of Concerted Research Actions (ARC) of the Université libre de Bruxelles, by a Research Credit (CDR – Crédit de Recherche) grant from the Belgian F.R.S.-FNRS, and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 846009. Yating Zheng and Weixu Zhu would like to acknowledge their support from the China Scholarship Council (grant numbers 201806040106 and 201706270186). The research in this paper was partly undertaken at the UJI Robotic Intelligence Laboratory. Support for this laboratory is provided in part by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (DPI2015-69041-R) and by Universitat Jaume I (UJI-B2018-74). Marco Dorigo acknowledges support from the Belgian F.R.S.-FNRS, of which he is a Research Director.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Yating Zheng & Zhangang Han

  2. IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Yating Zheng, Michael Allwright, Weixu Zhu & Marco Dorigo

  3. Universidad Jaume I, Castellon, Spain

    Majd Kassawat

Authors
  1. Yating Zheng
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  2. Michael Allwright
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  3. Weixu Zhu
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  4. Majd Kassawat
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  5. Zhangang Han
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  6. Marco Dorigo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Allwright .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. LIACS, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Mitra Baratchi

  2. LIACS, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Lu Cao

  3. LIACS, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Walter A. Kosters

  4. Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Jefrey Lijffijt

  5. LIACS, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Jan N. van Rijn

  6. LIACS, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Frank W. Takes

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Zheng, Y., Allwright, M., Zhu, W., Kassawat, M., Han, Z., Dorigo, M. (2021). Swarm Construction Coordinated Through the Building Material. In: Baratchi, M., Cao, L., Kosters, W.A., Lijffijt, J., van Rijn, J.N., Takes, F.W. (eds) Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. BNAIC/Benelearn 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1398. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76640-5_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76640-5_12

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-76640-5

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