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Space Ants: Constructing and Reconfiguring Large-Scale Structures with Finite Automata (Media Exposition)

Authors Amira Abdel-Rahman , Aaron T. Becker , Daniel E. Biediger, Kenneth C. Cheung, Sándor P. Fekete , Neil A. Gershenfeld, Sabrina Hugo, Benjamin Jenett , Phillip Keldenich , Eike Niehs , Christian Rieck , Arne Schmidt , Christian Scheffer , Michael Yannuzzi

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Amira Abdel-Rahman
  • Center for Bits and Atoms, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
Aaron T. Becker
  • Department of Electrical and Computer , Engineering, University of Houston, TX, USA
Daniel E. Biediger
  • Department of Electrical and Computer , Engineering, University of Houston, TX, USA
Kenneth C. Cheung
  • Coded Structures Lab, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA
Sándor P. Fekete
  • Department of Computer Science, TU Braunschweig, Germany
Neil A. Gershenfeld
  • Center for Bits and Atoms, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
Sabrina Hugo
  • Department of Computer Science, TU Braunschweig, Germany
Benjamin Jenett
  • Center for Bits and Atoms, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
Phillip Keldenich
  • Department of Computer Science, TU Braunschweig, Germany
Eike Niehs
  • Department of Computer Science, TU Braunschweig, Germany
Christian Rieck
  • Department of Computer Science, TU Braunschweig, Germany
Arne Schmidt
  • Department of Computer Science, TU Braunschweig, Germany
Christian Scheffer
  • Department of Computer Science, TU Braunschweig, Germany
Michael Yannuzzi
  • Department of Electrical and Computer , Engineering, University of Houston, TX, USA

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Amira Abdel-Rahman, Aaron T. Becker, Daniel E. Biediger, Kenneth C. Cheung, Sándor P. Fekete, Neil A. Gershenfeld, Sabrina Hugo, Benjamin Jenett, Phillip Keldenich, Eike Niehs, Christian Rieck, Arne Schmidt, Christian Scheffer, and Michael Yannuzzi. Space Ants: Constructing and Reconfiguring Large-Scale Structures with Finite Automata (Media Exposition). In 36th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 164, pp. 73:1-73:6, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)
https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2020.73

Abstract

In this video, we consider recognition and reconfiguration of lattice-based cellular structures by very simple robots with only basic functionality. The underlying motivation is the construction and modification of space facilities of enormous dimensions, where the combination of new materials with extremely simple robots promises structures of previously unthinkable size and flexibility. We present algorithmic methods that are able to detect and reconfigure arbitrary polyominoes, based on finite-state robots, while also preserving connectivity of a structure during reconfiguration. Specific results include methods for determining a bounding box, scaling a given arrangement, and adapting more general algorithms for transforming polyominoes.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Theory of computation → Computational geometry
  • Theory of computation → Formal languages and automata theory
Keywords
  • Finite automata
  • reconfiguration
  • construction
  • scaling

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