Call for Papers

Description

Self-reconfigurable modular robots are metamorphic systems that can autonomously change their logical or physical configurations (such as shapes, sizes, or formations), as well as their locomotion and manipulation, based on the mission and the environment in hand. Because of their modularity, versatility, self-healing ability and low cost reproducibility, such robots provide a flexible approach for achieving complex tasks in unstructured and dynamic environments. They are well suited for applications such as search and rescue, reconnaissance, self-assembly, inspections in hazardous environments, and exploration in space and ocean. They also pose fundamental research challenges for robotics and other major branches of computer science, mechatronics and control theory. The challenges are due to the dynamic topology of the network of modules, the limited resource (power, size, torque, precisions, etc.) of individual modules, the difficulties in global synchronization, the preclusion of centralized decision makers, and the unreliability of communication among modules. This workshop will present the recent progress in the research community for these challenging tasks and their real-world applications in space and other related fields. We will present and discuss the latest hardware progress, distributed control software, plug-and-play mechatronics, topology-triggered behaviors, and theories of self-reconfiguration. The outcome of the workshop will be a set of papers and a list of new hardware/software challenges for the future of this exciting research area.

This workshop will bring together all active researchers in this exciting research area of robotics. Since the topic is somewhat specialized, a workshop would be ideal for this purpose. The objective will be to exchanging the newest results in this field, and produce a set of papers and a list of new hardware/software challenges for future self-reconfigurable robots. Recently, there are many emerging groups in both Asia and Europe are conducting new research in the area, this international conference would be a good opportunities to bring the community together. Research in self-reconfiguration and related topics have been active in academic for many years now, and it is only recently that the results of these research are beginning to be used and applied to serious real-world applications such as sustainable space exploration, homeland security, and others. This workshop comes at the right time because many researchers are seeing the values of the field, and many companies are beginning to investigate their resources, and because more and more people are believe that this is the future of large systems to be constructed reliably and economically. List of tentative topics includes:

• --- The latest hardware progress,
• --- The latest behaviors of self-reconfigurable robots,
• --- Distributed control software,
• --- Plug-and-play mechatronics,
• --- Topology-triggered behaviors,
• --- Theories of self-reconfiguration.
• --- New challenges for future self-reconfigurable robots.

Submission

All accepted work will be published in a citable digital archive of the proceedings.

All submissions should be in PDF format, between 4 to 6 pages (including references), and should include author/institution information. Submissions should be emailed to shen at isi.edu by August 15th. Notification of acceptance will be given by September 15th.