Our research focuses on making robots truly autonomous and robust by intelligently distributing sensing, actuation, computation and communication in the system. Instances of systems that we are working with range from large-scale outdoor robot teams to miniature robotic swarms and smart materials.Our teaching focuses on creating a new breed of robotic systems engineers, an interdisciplinary approach to model and design large-scale distributed systems, and to attract students to engineering and computer science.The lab was founded in August 2009. Before this, Nikolaus was a Post-Doc with Daniela Rus‘ Distributed Robotics Laboratory at MIT, a PhD student with Alcherio Martinoli‘s Distributed Intelligent Systems and Algorithms Laboratory at EPFL, and a research assistant at the Collective Robotics Group, Caltech.
Aggregation processes are ubiquitous in a multitude of domains ranging from physics and biology, to swarm robotic systems. The processes responsible for aggregation are likely to share similarities on di fferent scales, from proteins, to social insects, and mammals, suggesting a common methodological framework for modeling their dynamics. Formal modeling of the underlying processes might ...
We are interested in designing "soft" robotic systems that show unprecedented levels of shape deformation, flexibility and robustness. To achieve this goal, we aim at combining chemistry, information theory, and control to create novel materials that embed sensing, computation, and actuation.
We are currently investigating cellular pneumatic systems, which have the ability to locomote ...
We wish to design a general methodology for designing mixed animal-robot societies, in which the robots can control the animal swarm/herd/flock in a desired away. If successful, we can take advantage of sensing, actuation or perception capabilities of animals that are hard or expensive to reproduce with engineering systems. For example, we could ...
We are interested in designing distributed algorithms that allow multiple robots to pool their resources for problem solving in realistic communication environments.
When multiple robots are faced with a common problem that is computationally intensive (e.g. coordinated navigation and/or task allocation), it is advantageous if all affected robots can contribute resources to help find a ...
Our long-term goal is to develop an autonomous green house consisting of autonomous robots where pots and plants are enhanced with computation, sensing, and communication. The network of robots, pots, and plants transforms energy, water and nutrients into produce and fruits. In this type of precision agriculture system water and nutrients ...
Wireless communication is a key technology in Distributed Intelligent Systems. Robotics applications pose challenges to current technology due to increased mobility and a large variety of throughput and latency requirements.
We have developed a platform for autonomous deployment of a mobile communication backbone, which can provide networking capability to other robotic agents, sensor ...
We wish to design distributed algorithms that guide the assembly of structures from passive building blocks. A specific application that we are currently exploring is the autonomous assembly of large-scale space telescopes. Space telescopes are currently deployed in a single launch and "unfold" when they reach their destination. Weight constraints ...
Imagine a wall that can help to save energy by selectively controlling of light and heat that can pass through it, can be rearranged within minutes, and allows you to program it by gestures. Although windows and blinds that can open and close automatically and glass that can change its ...
