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Lyu P, Broer DJ, Liu D. Advancing interactive systems with liquid crystal network-based adaptive electronics. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4191. [PMID: 38760356 PMCID: PMC11101476 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48353-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2024] [Accepted: 04/25/2024] [Indexed: 05/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Achieving adaptive behavior in artificial systems, analogous to living organisms, has been a long-standing goal in electronics and materials science. Efforts to integrate adaptive capabilities into synthetic electronics traditionally involved a typical architecture comprising of sensors, an external controller, and actuators constructed from multiple materials. However, challenges arise when attempting to unite these three components into a single entity capable of independently coping with dynamic environments. Here, we unveil an adaptive electronic unit based on a liquid crystal polymer that seamlessly incorporates sensing, signal processing, and actuating functionalities. The polymer forms a film that undergoes anisotropic deformations when exposed to a minor heat pulse generated by human touch. We integrate this property into an electric circuit to facilitate switching. We showcase the concept by creating an interactive system that features distributed information processing including feedback loops and enabling cascading signal transmission across multiple adaptive units. This system responds progressively, in a multi-layered cascade to a dynamic change in its environment. The incorporation of adaptive capabilities into a single piece of responsive material holds immense potential for expediting progress in next-generation flexible electronics, soft robotics, and swarm intelligence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pengrong Lyu
- Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - Dirk J Broer
- Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - Danqing Liu
- Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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2
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Sun X, Hu C, Liu T, Yue S, Peng J, Fu Q. Translating Virtual Prey-Predator Interaction to Real-World Robotic Environments: Enabling Multimodal Sensing and Evolutionary Dynamics. Biomimetics (Basel) 2023; 8:580. [PMID: 38132519 PMCID: PMC10742093 DOI: 10.3390/biomimetics8080580] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2023] [Revised: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 11/29/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Prey-predator interactions play a pivotal role in elucidating the evolution and adaptation of various organism's traits. Numerous approaches have been employed to study the dynamics of prey-predator interaction systems, with agent-based methodologies gaining popularity. However, existing agent-based models are limited in their ability to handle multi-modal interactions, which are believed to be crucial for understanding living organisms. Conversely, prevailing prey-predator integration studies often rely on mathematical models and computer simulations, neglecting real-world constraints and noise. These elusive attributes, challenging to model, can lead to emergent behaviors and embodied intelligence. To bridge these gaps, our study designs and implements a prey-predator interaction scenario that incorporates visual and olfactory sensory cues not only in computer simulations but also in a real multi-robot system. Observed emergent spatial-temporal dynamics demonstrate successful transitioning of investigating prey-predator interactions from virtual simulations to the tangible world. It highlights the potential of multi-robotics approaches for studying prey-predator interactions and lays the groundwork for future investigations involving multi-modal sensory processing while considering real-world constraints.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuelong Sun
- Machine Life and Intelligence Research Center, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China; (X.S.); (C.H.); (S.Y.)
- School of Mathematics and Information Science, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Cheng Hu
- Machine Life and Intelligence Research Center, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China; (X.S.); (C.H.); (S.Y.)
- School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Tian Liu
- MLTOR Numerical Control Technology Co., Ltd., Zhongshan 528400, China;
| | - Shigang Yue
- Machine Life and Intelligence Research Center, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China; (X.S.); (C.H.); (S.Y.)
- School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
| | - Jigen Peng
- Machine Life and Intelligence Research Center, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China; (X.S.); (C.H.); (S.Y.)
- School of Mathematics and Information Science, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Qinbing Fu
- Machine Life and Intelligence Research Center, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China; (X.S.); (C.H.); (S.Y.)
- School of Mathematics and Information Science, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
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3
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Lin G, Han Z, Shee A, Huepe C. Noise-Induced Quenched Disorder in Dense Active Systems. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2023; 131:168301. [PMID: 37925685 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.131.168301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 11/07/2023]
Abstract
We report and characterize the emergence of a noise-induced state of quenched disorder in a generic model describing a dense sheet of active polar disks. In this state, self-propelled disks become jammed with random orientations, only displaying small fluctuations about their mean positions and headings. The quenched disorder phase appears at intermediate noise levels, between moving polar order and standard dynamic disorder. We show that it results from retrograde forces produced by angular fluctuations with Ornstein-Uhlenbeck dynamics, compute its critical noise, and argue that it could emerge in a variety of systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guozheng Lin
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhangang Han
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People's Republic of China
| | - Amir Shee
- Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems and ESAM, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
| | - Cristián Huepe
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People's Republic of China
- Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems and ESAM, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
- CHuepe Labs, 2713 West August Boulevard No. 1, Chicago, Illinois 60622, USA
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4
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Wang X, Meng Z, Chen CQ. Robotic Materials Transformable Between Elasticity and Plasticity. ADVANCED SCIENCE (WEINHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY) 2023; 10:e2206637. [PMID: 36793150 PMCID: PMC10161124 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202206637] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2022] [Revised: 01/12/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Robotic materials, with coupled sensing, actuation, computation, and communication, have attracted increasing attention because they are able to not only tune their conventional passive mechanical property via geometrical transformation or material phase change but also become adaptive and even intelligent to suit varying environments. However, the mechanical behavior of most robotic materials is either reversible (elastic) or irreversible (plastic), but not transformable between them. Here, a robotic material whose behavior is transformable between elastic and plastic is developed, based upon an extended neutrally stable tensegrity structure. The transformation does not depend on conventional phase transition and is fast. By integrating with sensors, the elasticity-plasticity transformable (EPT) material is able to self-sense deformation and decides whether to undergo transformation or not. This work expands the capability of the mechanical property modulation of robotic materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyuan Wang
- Department of Engineering Mechanics, CNMM and AML, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China
| | - Zhiqiang Meng
- Department of Engineering Mechanics, CNMM and AML, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China
| | - Chang Qing Chen
- Department of Engineering Mechanics, CNMM and AML, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China
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5
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Ben Zion MY, Fersula J, Bredeche N, Dauchot O. Morphological computation and decentralized learning in a swarm of sterically interacting robots. Sci Robot 2023; 8:eabo6140. [PMID: 36812334 DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.abo6140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/24/2023]
Abstract
Whereas naturally occurring swarms thrive when crowded, physical interactions in robotic swarms are either avoided or carefully controlled, thus limiting their operational density. Here, we present a mechanical design rule that allows robots to act in a collision-dominated environment. We introduce Morphobots, a robotic swarm platform developed to implement embodied computation through a morpho-functional design. By engineering a three-dimensional printed exoskeleton, we encode a reorientation response to an external body force (such as gravity) or a surface force (such as a collision). We show that the force orientation response is generic and can augment existing swarm robotic platforms (e.g., Kilobots) as well as custom robots even 10 times larger. At the individual level, the exoskeleton improves motility and stability and also allows encoding of two contrasting dynamical behaviors in response to an external force or a collision (including collision with a wall or a movable obstacle and on a dynamically tilting plane). This force orientation response adds a mechanical layer to the robot's sense-act cycle at the swarm level, leveraging steric interactions for collective phototaxis when crowded. Enabling collisions also promotes information flow, facilitating online distributed learning. Each robot runs an embedded algorithm that ultimately optimizes collective performance. We identify an effective parameter that controls the force orientation response and explore its implications in swarms that transition from dilute to crowded. Experimenting with physical swarms (of up to 64 robots) and simulated swarms (of up to 8192 agents) shows that the effect of morphological computation increases with growing swarm size.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matan Yah Ben Zion
- Gulliver UMR CNRS 7083, ESPCI, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France.,Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, ISIR, F-75005 Paris, France.,School of Physics and Astronomy and Center for Physics and Chemistry of Living Systems, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
| | - Jeremy Fersula
- Gulliver UMR CNRS 7083, ESPCI, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France.,Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, ISIR, F-75005 Paris, France
| | - Nicolas Bredeche
- Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, ISIR, F-75005 Paris, France
| | - Olivier Dauchot
- Gulliver UMR CNRS 7083, ESPCI, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France
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Xu L, Zhu J, Chen B, Yang Z, Liu K, Dang B, Zhang T, Yang Y, Huang R. A distributed nanocluster based multi-agent evolutionary network. Nat Commun 2022; 13:4698. [PMID: 35948574 PMCID: PMC9365837 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32497-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
As an important approach of distributed artificial intelligence, multi-agent system provides an efficient way to solve large-scale computational problems through high-parallelism processing with nonlinear interactions between the agents. However, the huge capacity and complex distribution of the individual agents make it difficult for efficient hardware construction. Here, we propose and demonstrate a multi-agent hardware system that deploys distributed Ag nanoclusters as physical agents and their electrochemical dissolution, growth and evolution dynamics under electric field for high-parallelism exploration of the solution space. The collaboration and competition between the Ag nanoclusters allow information to be effectively expressed and processed, which therefore replaces cumbrous exhaustive operations with self-organization of Ag physical network based on the positive feedback of information interaction, leading to significantly reduced computational complexity. The proposed multi-agent network can be scaled up with parallel and serial integration structures, and demonstrates efficient solution of graph and optimization problems. An artificial potential field with superimposed attractive/repulsive components and varied ion velocity is realized, showing gradient descent route planning with self-adaptive obstacle avoidance. This multi-agent network is expected to serve as a physics-empowered parallel computing hardware.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liying Xu
- National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Jiadi Zhu
- National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Bing Chen
- School of Micro-Nano Electronics, Zhejiang University, 310058, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Zhen Yang
- National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Keqin Liu
- National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Bingjie Dang
- National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Teng Zhang
- National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Yuchao Yang
- National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China.
- Center for Brain Inspired Chips, Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China.
- Center for Brain Inspired Intelligence, Chinese Institute for Brain Research (CIBR), Beijing, 102206, Beijing, China.
- Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, 100084, Beijing, China.
| | - Ru Huang
- National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China.
- Center for Brain Inspired Chips, Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China.
- Center for Brain Inspired Intelligence, Chinese Institute for Brain Research (CIBR), Beijing, 102206, Beijing, China.
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7
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Xiao K, Zhou X, Ju J. Effect of disconnection of deformable units on the mobility and stiffness of 3D prismatic modular origami structures using angular kinematics. Sci Rep 2021; 11:18259. [PMID: 34521915 PMCID: PMC8440563 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97609-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2021] [Accepted: 08/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Architected modular origami structures show potential for future robotic matter owing to their reconfigurability with multiple mobilities. Similar to modular robots, the units of modular origami structures do not need to be assembled in a fully packed fashion; in fact, disconnection can provide more freedom for the design of mobility and functionality. Despite the potential of expanded design freedom, the effect of the disconnection of units on the mobility and physical properties has not yet been explored in modular origami structures. Determining the mobility and weak spots of modular origami structures is significant to enable transformation with minimum energy. Herein, we investigate the effect of the disconnection of units on the mobility and stiffness of architected modular origami structures with deformable units using angular kinematics of geometry and topology of units and closed loops. Angular kinematics provides a valuable tool for investigating the complex mobility of architected modular origami structures with the disconnection of loops. The mobility of the network structure is a function not only of the number of disconnections but also of the topology of the loop. In contrast to the conventional negative perception of defects or disconnection in these materials, the disconnection can potentially be used to expand the design space of mobility for future robotic matter. Our findings can be used to develop powerful design guidelines for topologically reconfigurable structures for soft modular robots, active architected materials, implanted modular devices, deployable structures, thermal metamaterials, and active acoustic metamaterials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Xiao
- UM-SJTU Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiang Zhou
- School of Aeronautic and Astronautic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Jaehyung Ju
- UM-SJTU Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, China.
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