USC/ISI Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory - Self-configurable and Adaptive Robots (Profile)

Over the last 30 years, the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (ISI) has emerged as one of the world's leading research centers in the fields of computer science and information technology. It would be impossible to cover the breadth of their research in a short article like this, so we focus on a very small laboratory that is making big news in the robotics world. The ISI Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory (PRL) is one of six laboratories associated with the USC laboratory is a leader in self-reconfigur-able and adaptive robot research, with projects including self-assembly for Space Solar Power Systems (SOLAR), the self-reconfigurable robot CONRO, the robot soccer team DREAMTEAM, the Intelligent Motion Surface, and the indoor navigation robot YODA. PRL researchers develop modular hardware systems and teams of independently-controlled autonomous agents that work in synergy. Their robot soccer team was ranked #1 in the 1997 RoboCup contest due to their speed and quick reactions. The lab is currently organizing a new team. In this article we highlight two related projects that are particularly good examples of some of the novel ideas being generated by this laboratory. II. MODULAR ROBOTS GROW BY MELDING Real-life " Transformer " robots can automatically reconfigure as needed for different applications. PRL researchers have designed robotic units that can knit themselves together in a variety of ways, automatically taking on different behaviors depending on their positions. Identical modular units can autonomously look for and find each other, link themselves to one another and then, when united, work effectively as a single unified whole. Metamorphing robots − known as CONROs, for CONfigurable RObots − may soon be worming their way through small crevices in earthquake debris or at a fire scene. Once inside, the tail of the worm could disconnect and reattach as legs. Each CONRO unit could be equipped with a different sensor, speaker, or even be able to deliver doses of medicine. Microscopic versions might work their way into keyholes and unlock doors, or even assemble inside the body to form surgical instruments. The prototype CONRO units are about three inches long, consisting of a few small electric motors, a processing unit, and an active end that can move back and forth and up and down. This end has plugs on three sides that fit into receptacles on the front ends of other devices. Separated units communicate using infrared signals, maneuvering their coupling …