Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Communication among particle robots is crucial for developing swarm intelligence. Current particle robots rely entirely on electronic communication systems, requiring a sensor to receive signals, a transducer to send signals, a processor to process them, and a battery to power the system. In this work, an alternative, electronics‐free communication strategy for particle robots is introduced via physical contact between their architected tentacles. Instead of relying on a central controller, the communication protocols are embodied in the geometrical outlines of these tentacles and can be further tuned with external vibrations. Separated particles can interlock under external pressure to form stable clusters resembling “solids,” or vaporize into “gas” by spontaneously repelling one another. Surrogate simulation tools have been developed to guide the design of these robots, enabling the inverse design of particle geometries for programmable interlocking and repulsion. Based on these basic communication schemes, particle robots can achieve a range of functionalities through collective behavior, including fast, sequential, and hierarchical deployment, locomotion, and coordinated group navigation. Finally, this contact‐based communication concept is extended to particles with different shapes, hybrid particle interactions, 3D particles, and microscale particle robots.
Source: Advanced Intelligent Systems
Authors: Xinyi Yang, Bohan Wang, Víctor Riera Naranjo, Minghao Guo, Olivia Rivera, Leonid Sopizhenko, Shucong Li, William Freeman, Wojciech Matusik, Bolei Deng
Language: English
Subfield: Mechanical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,970
Funder: Georgia Institute of Technology
OpenAlex ID: W4412379040