[Theory] 3/2 Talks at TTIC: Justin Werfel, Harvard University

[Mary Marre]

*When:*      Monday, March 2nd at 11:00 am



*Where:*     TTIC, 6045 S. Kenwood Avenue, 5th Floor, Room 526



*Who: *        Justin Werfel, Harvard University



*Title:     *Designing Collective Behavior in Robotic Swarms

*Abstract: *Nature is full of systems where independent, limited agents
together give rise to sophisticated collective results, from cells in a
body to organisms in a society. Such cases show that dynamically
interchangeable, individually unreliable components can produce effective
and reliable outcomes at the group level. The goal of engineering systems
that work in such a way has the promise of producing powerful systems with
advantages like robustness to failures of individual elements and
flexibility in adapting to unknown conditions and unexpected events. At the
same time, meeting this goal requires overcoming challenges not only of
accommodating unpredictability and limitations of individual agents, but
also of designing low-level behaviors that guarantee a particular
high-level outcome.
In this talk, I will discuss the design of several multi-robot systems
centered on the topic of collective construction, in which independent
agents jointly build large-scale structures. Key principles that make
engineering such systems possible include using the environment as a tool
for coordinating effort and facilitating mechanical tasks, and creating
regularities that constrain the space of possible trajectories. I will
first discuss a system of independent climbing robots that flexibly build
structures using specialized building blocks; a user can specify a precise
target structure as an input, and robots follow simple rules that provably
guarantee the correct completion of that structure. Next I will outline
more recent work on the use of physical forces within truss-based
structures as an additional cue for coordination, and on robots that drive
interlocking sheet piles to serve as anchors for superstructures or as
direct interventions for environmental restoration. I will close with an
overview of our studies of collective construction in natural systems,
uncovering principles used by the social insects that inspire the field of
swarm robotics.


*Host:* Matthew Walter <mwalter at ttic.edu>



Mary C. Marre
Faculty Administrative Support
*Toyota Technological Institute*
*6045 S. Kenwood Avenue*
*Room 517*
*Chicago, IL  60637*
*p:(773) 834-1757*
*f: (773) 357-6970*
*mmarre at ttic.edu <mmarre at ttic.edu>*
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