Supervised morphogenesis: morphology control of ground-based self-assembling robots by aerial robots

In this paper, we study a heterogeneous robot team composed of self-assembling robots and aerial robots that cooperate with each other to carry out global tasks. We introduce supervised morphogenesis – an approach in which aerial robots exploit their better view of the environment to detect tasks on the ground that require self-assembly, and perform on-board simulations to determine the morphology most adequate to carry out the task. In case existing morphologies on the ground do not match those determined in simulation, aerial robots use a series of enabling mechanisms to initiate and control (hence supervise) the formation of morphologies more adequate to carry out the task. Supervised morphogenesis solely employs LEDs and camera-based local communication between the two robot types. We validate the applicability of our approach in a real-world scenario, in which ground-based robots are given the task to cross an unknown, undulated terrain by forming ad-hoc morphologies under the supervision of an aerial robot.