Self-assembly on Demand in a Group of Physical Autonomous Mobile Robots Navigating Rough Terrain

Consider a group of autonomous, mobile robots with the ability to physically connect to one another (self-assemble). The group is said to exhibit functional self-assembly if the robots can choose to selfassemble in response to the demands of their task and environment [15]. We present the first robotic controller capable of functional self-assembly implemented on a real robotic platform. The task we consider requires a group of robots to navigate over an area of unknown terrain towards a target light source. If possible, the robots should navigate to the target independently. If, however, the terrain proves too difficult for a single robot, the robots should self-assemble into a larger group entity and collectively navigate to the target. We believe this to be one of the most complex tasks carried out to date by a team of physical autonomous robots. We present quantitative results confirming the efficacy of our controller. This puts our robotic system at the cutting edge of autonomous mobile multi-robot research.