Towards Continuously Reconfigurable Self-Designing Robotics

We propose a new process for continuously reconjgurable robotics. Given a task, a robot evolves a suitable movhologv and control, then prints the assembled 30 structure, downloads into it andper$orms the task, and then recycles into a diflerent form for the next task. This approach relinquishes the need to adhere to discrete or fuced components as well as manually designed configurations. Although the technology forficlly realizing the proposed concept to is not entirely available, we have demonstrated a first case: Given the task of locomotion, various robots with direrent mechanics and control are evolved automatically. The design space is comprised of only linear actuators and sigmoidal control neurons embodied in an arbitrary thermoplastic body. The robots then print pre-assembled using rapid prototyping technology, and perform the task in reality. The robots are then recycled. This paper described one implementation and provides examples of successfil physical robots generated by the proposed process.