Swarm robotics is a new approach to the coordination of multi-robot systems which consist
of large numbers of relatively simple robots which takes its inspiration from social insects …

This paper surveys various applications of artificial evolution in the field of modular robots.
Evolutionary robotics aims to design autonomous adaptive robots automatically that can …

Within the context of multiple mobile, and networked robot systems, this chapter explores the
current state of the art. After a brief introduction, we first examine architectures for multirobot …

Social insects--ants, bees, termites, and wasps--can be viewed as powerful problem-solving
systems with sophisticated collective intelligence. Composed of simple interacting agents …

Modular, self-reconfigurable robots show the promise of great versatility, robustness and low
cost. The paper presents examples and issues in realizing those promises. PolyBot is a …

We present a review of recent activities in swarm robotic research, and analyse existing
literature in the field to determine how to get closer to a practical swarm robotic system for …

Robots used for tasks in space have strict requirements. Modular reconfigurable robots have
a variety of attributes that are well suited to these conditions, including: serving as many …

We discuss a robotic system composed of Crystalline modules. Crystalline modules can
aggregate together to form distributed robot systems. Crystalline modules can move relative …

During the past three decades, motion planning has emerged as a crucial and productive
research area in robotics. In the mid-1980s, the most advanced planners were barely able to …

We discuss a robotic module called a molecule. Molecules can be the basis for building self-
reconfiguring robots. They support multiple modalities of locomotion and manipulation. We …