Construction of spatially extended, self-supporting structures requires a consideration of structural stability throughout the building sequence. For collective construction systems, where independent agents act with variable order and timing under decentralized control, ensuring stability is a particularly pronounced challenge. Previous research in this area has largely neglected considering stability during the building process. Physical forces present throughout a structure may be usable as a cue to inform agent actions as well as an indirect communication mechanism (stigmergy) to coordinate their behavior, as adding material leads to redistribution of forces which then informs the addition of further material. Here we consider in simulation a system of decentralized climbing robots capable of traversing and extending a two-dimensional truss structure, and explore the use of feedback based on force sensing as a way for the swarm to anticipate and prevent structural failures. We consider a scenario in which robots are tasked with building an unsupported cantilever across a gap, as for a bridge, where the goal is for the swarm to build any stable spanning structure rather than to construct a specific predetermined blueprint. We show that access to local force measurements enables robots to build cantilevers that span significantly farther than those built by robots without access to such information. This improvement is achieved by taking measures to maintain both strength and stability, where strength is ensured by paying attention to forces during locomotion to prevent joints from breaking, and stability is maintained by looking at how loads transfer to the ground to ensure against toppling. We show that swarms that take both kinds of forces into account have improved building performance, in both structured settings with flat ground and unpredictable environments with rough terrain.

中文翻译：

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分布式机器人构造系统中用于强度和稳定性的局部力提示

在空间上扩展的自支撑结构的建造需要在整个建造过程中考虑结构稳定性。对于集体建筑系统而言，在分散控制下，独立代理以可变的顺序和时间行动，确保稳定性是特别明显的挑战。考虑到建筑过程中的稳定性，该领域的先前研究在很大程度上被忽略了。由于增加材料导致力的重新分配，然后通知其他材料的添加，因此整个结构中存在的物理力可用作提示代理行为的线索，以及用作协调其行为的间接沟通机制（stigmergy）。在这里，我们在仿真中考虑了能够穿越和扩展二维桁架结构的分散式攀爬机器人系统，并探索了基于力感的反馈的使用，作为群体预测和预防结构故障的一种方法。我们考虑一种场景，在这种场景中，机器人需要负责在整个间隙中构建不受支撑的悬臂，例如桥梁，其目标是使群体建立任何稳定的跨度结构，而不是构建特定的预定蓝图。我们表明，访问局部力测量值使机器人能够构建悬臂，其悬臂比未获得此类信息的机器人所构建的悬臂要远得多。通过采取措施同时保持强度和稳定性来实现这一改进，通过在运动过程中注意力来防止关节折断来确保强度，并通过查看载荷如何转移到地面以防止倾覆来保持稳定性。我们显示，在平坦地面和地形崎un的结构化环境中，将两种力都考虑在内的群体可以改善建筑物的性能。