Working Towards Self-assembling Robots at All Scales

From crystals to galaxies, self-assembly is evident throughout nature at all scales. Self-assembly in natural systems is primarily dictated by the morphology of the components within a system and the environmental conditions they are subjected to, as well as their component and environment physical and chemical properties. Several experiments are discussed that demonstrate how to harness these principles of self-assembly to create two-dimensional, physical, geometric mesoscale structures. Primarily, these experiments demonstrate how the relationship between component shape and an assembly protocol can be used to create defined entities of varying form, and could be used as a method for creating more sophisticated netted systems by leveraging the physical attributes of a system. Based on the successful results of these experiments, an evolutionary computation model for applying the principles of self-assembly in nature is also presented, as an approach for working towards the creation of self-assembling robots from the macroscale to the nanoscale.