Abstract
This paper introduces HydroGen, an object compiler system that produces self-assembly instructions for configurations of Hydron units. The Hydron is distinct from other self-reconfigurable robotic units in that it operates under water, and can thus move without being constrained by gravity of connectivity requirements. It is therefore well suited to self-assembly as opposed to self-reconfiguration, and faces similar control problems to those expected in nanotechnology applications.
We describe the first version of the Hydron Object Compiler and its supporting software. The object compiler uses a basic instruction set to produce instructions for the distributed self-assembly of any given connected configuration of Hydron units. We briefly outline the implementation of a preliminary interpreter for this instruction set for Hydron units in a reasonably realistic simulated environment, and demonstrate its operation on two example configurations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
A.V. Aho, R. Sethi, and J.D. Ullman. Compilers: Principles, techniques and tools. Addison-Wesley, 1986.
K.D. Kotay and D.L. Rus. Algorithms for self-reconfiguring molecule motion planning. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2000.
S. Kumar and P.J. Bentley. An introduction to computational development. In S. Kumar and P.J. Bentley, editors, On Growth, Form and Computers, chapter 1, pages 1–44. Elsevier, 2003.
H. Lodish, A. Berk, S.L. Zipursky, P. Matsudaira, D. Baltimore, and J. Darnell. Molecular Cell Biology. W.H. Freeman & Co., New York, NY, 4th edition, 1999.
E. Østergaard and H. H. Lund. Evolving control for modular robotic units. In Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation, Kobe, Japan, 2003.
T. Reil. Dynamics of gene expression in an artificial genome —implications for biology and artificial ontogeny. In D. Floreano, J.-D. Nicoud, and F. Mondada, editors, Proceedings of the Fifth European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL99), 1999.
K. Støy. Controlling self-reconfiguration using cellular automata and gradients. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-8), March 2004.
T. Taylor. A genetic regulatory network-inspired real-time controller for a group of underwater robots. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-8), March 2004.
K. Tomita, S. Murata, H. Kurokawa, E. Yoshida, and S. Kokaji. Self-assembly and self-repair method for a distributed mechanical system. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 15(6): 1035–1045, December 1999.
M. Yim, Y. Zhang, J. Lamping, and E. Mao. Distributed control for 3D metamorphosis. Autonomous Robots, 10(1):45–56, 2001.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer
About this paper
Cite this paper
Konidaris, G., Taylor, T., Hallam, J. (2007). HydroGen: Automatically Generating Self-Assembly Code for Hydron Units. In: Alami, R., Chatila, R., Asama, H. (eds) Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 6. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-35873-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-35873-2_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-35869-5
Online ISBN: 978-4-431-35873-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)