Robohub.org
podcast
 

Construction with Amorphous Materials with Nils Napp

Wyss Institute         
by
06 September 2013



share this:

In this episode, Sabine Hauert interviews Nils Napp from the Self-organizing Systems Research Group at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.

Napp tells us about his project to create robots that can reliably build structures in uncertain, unstructured terrain. Like termites that can build complex structures using shapeless materials like mud, his robots build structures out of foam, toothpicks or bags of sand. As a first example, he’s been working on ramp building in chaotic environments remnant of disaster scenarios. Focus is given to designing algorithms that allow the robot to build up the ramp using only local information and without any preplanning. These features allow his algorithms to be scaled to multiple robots, thereby speeding up the process. Finally, Napp tells us about the challenges he faces when working with such materials, the steps needed to bring these robots out of the lab and tradeoffs with classical construction techniques. He also introduces us to his latest work in synthetic biology.

And here’s an example of another SSR robot using amorphous material by Christian Ahler.

Nils Napp
Nils Napp is a postdoctoral fellow at Radhika Nagpal’s Self-organizing Systems Research Group at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Before coming to Harvard, Nils Napp received his Master and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington where he worked at the Klavins lab on Robotic Chemistry and Programmable Parts.

His main research focus is on control strategies for groups of robots and other distributed systems. Ultimately, he hopes to make self-organized systems that like biological systems are able to reliably work in random, unstructured, and fluctuating environments.

Links:



tags: , , ,


Sabine Hauert is President of Robohub and Associate Professor at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory
Sabine Hauert is President of Robohub and Associate Professor at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 42 – Thom Kirwan-Evans

In this week's episode of the Robot Talk podcast, host Claire Asher chatted to Thom Kirwan-Evans from Origami Labs all about computer vision, machine learning, and robots in industry.
25 March 2023, by

Resilient bug-sized robots keep flying even after wing damage

New repair techniques enable microscale robots to recover flight performance after suffering severe damage to the artificial muscles that power their wings.
23 March 2023, by

How drones for organ transportation are changing the healthcare industry

The healthcare drone industry has witnessed a dramatic surge in the last couple of years. In 2020, the market grew 30% and is expected to grow from $254 million in 2021 to $1,5 billion in 2028.
21 March 2023, by

Robotic bees and roots offer hope of healthier environment and sufficient food

Miniature robots that mimic living organisms are being developed to explore and support real-life ecosystems.
18 March 2023, by

Robot Talk Episode 41 – Alessandra Rossi

In this week's episode of the Robot Talk podcast, host Claire Asher chatted to Alessandra Rossi from the University of Naples all about social robotics, theory of mind, and robots playing football.
17 March 2023, by





©2021 - ROBOTS Association


 












©2021 - ROBOTS Association