Self-Organized Robotic Systems: Large-Scale Experiments in Aggregation and Self-Assembly Using Miniature Robots

Scientific and technological breakthroughs in the field of nano-

and microengineering have steered the robotics community toward

the realm of extreme miniaturization. Very small robots a few

centimeters in size can access environments that are beyond the

reach of larger robots, with recent case studies including scenarios

such as the inspection of the digestive tract [Nagy et al. (2008); Rentschler et al. (2008)] or complicated industrial machinery [Correll and Martinoli (2009)]. Further miniaturization down to the

micro-or nanoscale holds even more exciting potential in a large

variety of fields [Woern et al. (2006); Abbott et al. (2007); Dong andNelson (2007)]. However, miniaturization comes at a price: such

robots are likely limited to minimalist computational, sensing, ac-

tuation, and communication capabilities. These severe restrictions

create the need for a collaborative approach toward the solving of

tasks by leveraging perception and action at a collective level.