Project leads: Devin Balkcom,
Emily Whiting,
Yinan Zhang
Funding: NSF RI 1813043, MBR Space Settlement Challenge
We would like to use robots to quickly build structures such as homes, retaining walls, scaffolding, microscale devices, and other robots. What are the best component elements, and how should they be assembled? We have designed blocks that are in some ways like Legos. However, while Legos are connected using friction that requires a tight fit, our blocks fit together like 3D puzzles to form strong interlocking structures, even if there are small errors in the assembly process. We have used these blocks to construct simple shapes with robots, and developed methods to design arbitrary shapes with thousands of components.
@inproceedings{Zhang2018-interlocking,
author = "Zhang, Yinan and Balkcom, Devin",
title = "Interlocking block assembly",
booktitle = "Algorithmic Foundation of Robotics ({WAFR})",
year = "2018",
month = "December"
}
@article{Zhang2018a,
author = "Zhang, Yinan and Whiting, Emily and Balkcom, Devin",
title = "Assembling and disassembling planar structures with divisible and atomic components",
journal = "{IEEE} Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering",
year = "2018",
doi = "10.1109/TASE.2018.2809595"
}
@inproceedings{Zhang2017,
author = "Zhang, Yinan and Chen, Xiaolei and Qi, Hang and Balkcom, Devin",
title = "Rearranging agents in a small space using global controls",
booktitle = "{IEEE/RSJ} International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems ({IROS})",
year = "2017"
}
@inproceedings{Zhang2016b,
author = "Zhang, Yinan and Whiting, Emily and Balkcom, Devin",
title = "Assembling and disassembling planar structures with divisible and atomic components",
booktitle = "Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics ({WAFR})",
year = "2016"
}
@inproceedings{Zhang2016a,
author = "Zhang, Yinan and Balkcom, Devin",
title = "Interlocking structure assembly with voxels",
booktitle = "{IEEE/RSJ} International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems ({IROS})",
year = "2016"
}
@inproceedings{Li2013,
author = "Li, Zhong and Balkcom, Devin and Dollar, Aaron M.",
title = "Rigid 2D space-filling folds of unbroken linear chains",
booktitle = "IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)",
year = "2013",
pages = "551–557",
doi = "10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630628"
}
@article{Kavathekar2010,
author = "Kavathekar, Paritosh A. and Craig, Bruce A. and Friedman, Alan M. and Bailey{-}Kellogg, Chris and Balkcom, Devin",
title = "Characterizing the space of interatomic distance distribution functions consistent with solution scattering data",
journal = "Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology",
year = "2010",
volume = "8",
number = "2",
pages = "315–335",
doi = "10.1142/S0219720010004781"
}
@inproceedings{LoomisB06,
author = "Loomis, Anne and Balkcom, Devin",
title = "Computation reuse for rigid-body dynamics",
booktitle = "{IEEE/RSJ} International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems ({IROS})",
year = "2006",
pages = "4181–4186",
doi = "10.1109/IROS.2006.281910",
num = "11"
}
@inproceedings{Balkcom2002d,
author = "Balkcom, Devin and Gottlieb, E. J. and Trinkle, Jeffrey C.",
title = "A sensorless insertion strategy for rigid planar parts",
booktitle = "{IEEE} International Conference on Robotics and Automation ({ICRA})",
year = "2002",
pages = "882–887",
url = "http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/\textasciitilde devin/papers/djb-icra02sn.pdf",
doi = "10.1109/ROBOT.2002.1013468",
note = "Superceded"
}
@inproceedings{Balkcom2002c,
author = "Balkcom, Devin and Trinkle, Jeffrey C. and Gottlieb, E. J.",
title = "Computing wrench cones for planar contact tasks",
booktitle = "{IEEE} International Conference on Robotics and Automation ({ICRA})",
year = "2002",
pages = "869–875",
url = "http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/\textasciitilde devin/papers/djb-icra02wc.pdf",
doi = "10.1109/ROBOT.2002.1013466"
}
@article{Balkcom2002b,
author = "Balkcom, Devin and Trinkle, Jeffrey C.",
title = "Computing wrench cones for planar rigid body contact tasks",
journal = "International Journal of Robotics Research",
year = "2002",
volume = "21",
number = "12",
pages = "1053–1066",
doi = "10.1177/0278364902021012003",
note = "Superceded"
}