Adaptive Path Formation in Self-Assembling Robot Swarms by Tree-like Vascular Morphogenesis

<p>For self-assembly, robot swarms can be programmed to form predefined shapes. <br> However, if the swarm is required to adapt the assembled shapes to dynamic features of the environment at runtime, then the shapes' structures need to be dynamic, too. <br> Prerequisite for adaptation is exploration and detection of changes followed by appropriate rearrangements of the assembled structure. <br> We study a self-assembling robot swarm forming trees to explore its environment and searching for bright areas. <br> The tree-formation process is inspired by the vascular morphogenesis of natural plants. <br> Detecting light produces a virtual resource shared within the tree, helping to drop useless branches while reinforcing efficient paths between bright areas and the tree root.<br> We successfully verify our self-assembly approach in several swarm robot experiments in a dynamic environment showing that the robot swarm can collectively discriminate between light sources at different distances and of different qualities.</p