Computer Creativity in the Automatic Design of Robots

Leonardo ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan B. Pollack ◽  
Gregory S. Hornby ◽  
Hod Lipson ◽  
Pablo Funes
Keyword(s):  
Control Systems ◽  
Artificial Life ◽  
Physical Simulation ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Truss Structures ◽  
Rapid Manufacturing ◽  
Automatic Design ◽  
History Of

This article demonstrates the possibility that robotic systems can automatically design robots with complex morphologies and tightly adapted control systems at a low cost. These automatic designs are inspired by nature and achieved through an artificial coevolutionary process to adapt the bodies and brains of artificial life-forms simultaneously through interaction with a simulated reality. Through the use of rapid manufacturing, these evolved designs can be transferred from virtual to true reality. The artificial evolution process embedded in realistic physical simulation can create simple designs often recognizable from the history of biology or engineering. This paper provides a brief review of three generations of these robots, from automatically designed LEGO structures, through the GOLEM project of electromechanical systems based on “truss” structures, to new modular designs that make use of a generative, DNA-like representation.

Economic Consequences of War

1943 ◽  
Vol 3 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Curtis P. Nettels
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Competitive Position ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Costs Of Production ◽  
Foreign Competitors

One influence of war has repeatedly asserted itself in the past—an effect on the costs of production and on the competitive position of the industries and firms of victorious or neutral nations. This subject needs more study, but certain facts suggest a hypothesis, of three parts. First: war expands some industries or concerns, increases their efficiency, enables them to operate, at the end of the struggle, on a comparatively low-cost basis, intensifies their competitive advantages, and improves their position in relation to foreign competitors. Second: war—for the duration—bolsters up some high-cost units by enabling them to sell at a profit all they can produce. The end of the war places such high-cost units at a disadvantage in the process of absorbing the shocks of the transition to a peacetime economy. Third: the history of postwar periods usually exhibits a sharp contest between such low-cost and high-cost enterprises. While “low cost” and “high cost” may refer to the relative positions of units within the same country, in most of this discussion, the terms will be applied to the producers of one country (either victor or neutral) to mean that their costs are low or high in comparison with those of their foreign competitors.

scholarly journals Artificial life and ‘nature’s purposes’: The question of behavioral autonomy

Human Affairs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-596
Author(s):  
Elena Popa
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Life ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Behavioral Traits ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Autonomous Behavior ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Behavioral Autonomy ◽  
Synthetic Life ◽  
Biological Organisms

AbstractThis paper investigates the concept of behavioral autonomy in Artificial Life by drawing a parallel to the use of teleological notions in the study of biological life. Contrary to one of the leading assumptions in Artificial Life research, I argue that there is a significant difference in how autonomous behavior is understood in artificial and biological life forms: the former is underlain by human goals in a way that the latter is not. While behavioral traits can be explained in relation to evolutionary history in biological organisms, in synthetic life forms behavior depends on a design driven by a research agenda, further shaped by broader human goals. This point will be illustrated with a case study on a synthetic life form. Consequently, the putative epistemic benefit of reaching a better understanding of behavioral autonomy in biological organisms by synthesizing artificial life forms is subject to doubt: the autonomy observed in such artificial organisms may be a mere projection of human agency. Further questions arise in relation to the need to spell out the relevant human aims when addressing potential social or ethical implications of synthesizing artificial life forms.

Electrostatic bellow muscle actuators and energy harvesters that stack up

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (51) ◽  
pp. eaaz5796
Author(s):  
I. D. Sîrbu ◽  
G. Moretti ◽  
G. Bortolotti ◽  
M. Bolignari ◽  
S. Diré ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Artificial Muscle ◽  
Pressure Head ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Maximum Pressure ◽  
Term Operation ◽  
Energy Harvesters ◽  
Out Of Plane

Future robotic systems will be pervasive technologies operating autonomously in unknown spaces that are shared with humans. Such complex interactions make it compulsory for them to be lightweight, soft, and efficient in a way to guarantee safety, robustness, and long-term operation. Such a set of qualities can be achieved using soft multipurpose systems that combine, integrate, and commute between conventional electromechanical and fluidic drives, as well as harvest energy during inactive actuation phases for increased energy efficiency. Here, we present an electrostatic actuator made of thin films and liquid dielectrics combined with rigid polymeric stiffening elements to form a circular electrostatic bellow muscle (EBM) unit capable of out-of-plane contraction. These units are easy to manufacture and can be arranged in arrays and stacks, which can be used as a contractile artificial muscle, as a pump for fluid-driven soft robots, or as an energy harvester. As an artificial muscle, EBMs of 20 to 40 millimeters in diameter can exert forces of up to 6 newtons, lift loads over a hundred times their own weight, and reach contractions of over 40% with strain rates over 1200% per second, with a bandwidth over 10 hertz. As a pump driver, these EBMs produce flow rates of up to 0.63 liters per minute and maximum pressure head of 6 kilopascals, whereas as generator, they reach a conversion efficiency close to 20%. The compact shape, low cost, simple assembling procedure, high reliability, and large contractions make the EBM a promising technology for high-performance robotic systems.

A Low-Cost Hexa Platform for Efficient Force Control Systems Using Industrial Manipulators

2009 ◽  
Vol 147-149 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafal Osypiuk ◽  
Torsten Kröger
Keyword(s):  
Control Systems ◽  
Force Control ◽  
Execution Time ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Degree Of Freedom ◽  
Industrial Manipulators ◽  
Control Concept ◽  
Six Dof ◽  
Parallel Platform ◽  
Six Degree Of Freedom

This contribution presents a new force control concept for industrial six-degree of freedom (DOF) manipulators, which uses a Hexa platform that provides an active environmental stiffness for all six DOFs. The paper focuses on the Hexa platform and is split into two essential parts: (i) parallel platform construction, and (ii) application of force control with industrial manipulators using a six-DOF environmental stiffness. This mechatronic solution almost gives one hundred percent robustness for stiffness changes in the environment, what guaranties a significant shortening of execution time.

Modal Analyses of Deployable Truss Structures Based on Shape Memory Polymer Composites

2016 ◽  
Vol 08 (07) ◽  
pp. 1640009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengfeng Li ◽  
Liwu Liu ◽  
Xin Lan ◽  
Tong Wang ◽  
Xiangyu Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Finite Element ◽  
Shape Memory ◽  
Polymer Composites ◽  
Dynamic Properties ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Shape Memory Polymer ◽  
Truss Structures ◽  
Modal Test ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Mechanical Devices

With large spatial deployable antennas used more widely, the stability of deployable antennas is attracting more attention. The form of the support structure is an important factor of the antenna’s natural frequency, which is essential to study to prevent the resonance. The deployable truss structures based on shape memory polymer composites (SMPCs) have made themselves feasible for their unique properties such as highly reliable, low-cost, light weight, and self-deployment without complex mechanical devices compared with conventional deployable masts. This study offers deliverables as follows: an establishment of three-longeron beam and three-longeron truss finite element models by using ABAQUS; calculation of natural frequencies and vibration modes; parameter studies for influence on their dynamic properties; manufacture of a three-longeron truss based on SMPC, and modal test of the three-longeron truss. The results show that modal test and finite element simulation fit well.

Mestizo Robotics

Leonardo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-137
Author(s):  
Gustavo Crembil ◽  
Paula Gaetano Adi
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Life ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Peruvian Amazon ◽  
Hybrid Nature ◽  
Alternative Approach

With a cultural and material “cannibalistic” approach, the authors aim to revise certain technological discourses by introducing TZ’IJK, a “mestizo” robotic artwork developed in the Peruvian Amazon. Far from the utopian visions of Hollywood sci-fi movies populated by highly intelligent, anthropomorphic and responsive machines, TZ’IJK employs a combination of high and low technologies that embody Latin America’s anthropophagic, postcolonial and hybrid nature. Mestizo Robotics proposes an alternative approach to the development of embodied artificial life forms, from both theoretical and technological viewpoints.

Towards Parallel Cable-Driven Pantographs

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Perreault ◽  
Philippe Cardou ◽  
Cle´ment Gosselin
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Output Link ◽  
Static Balancing ◽  
New Class ◽  
Nonlinear Springs ◽  
Preliminary Validation ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
History Of ◽  
Working Principle ◽  
Two Degree Of Freedom

We propose a new class of pantographs, i.e., of mechanisms that allow the reproduction of the displacements of an input link, the master, with an output link, the slave. The application we envision for these devices is the telemanipulation of objects from small distances, at low cost, where magnetic fields or other design constraints prohibit the use of electromechanical systems. Despite the long history of pantographs, which were invented in the 17th century, the class of pantographs proposed here is new, as it relies on parallel cable-driven mechanisms to transmit the motion. This allows the reproduction of rigid-body displacements, while previous pantographs were limited to point displacements. This important characteristic and others are described in the paper. One important challenge in the design of the proposed systems is that the cables must remain taut at all time. We address this issue by introducing nonlinear springs that passively maintain a minimum tension in the cables, while approximating static balancing of the mechanism over its workspace. Approximating static balancing allows the forces applied at the slave to reflect more accurately at the master, and vice versa. As a preliminary validation, a two-degree-of-freedom parallel cable-driven pantograph is designed. A prototype of this apparatus that does not include approximate static balancing is built, which demonstrates the working principle of these mechanisms.

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