抄録
This paper discusses experimental verifications of a two-dimensional modular robot called "Slimebot", consisting of many identical modules. Investigation has so far been with a fully-decentralized algorithm that can control the morphology of the Slimebot in accordance with the environment encountered. One of the most significant features of the approach of us, the authors of this paper is that explicit exploitation has been promoted with "the emergent phenomena" stemming from the interplay between the control system and the mechanical system for the purpose of controlling the morphology in real time. In order to verify these results, the real physical Slimebot consisting of 17 modules powered by pneumatic actuators is developed. The experiment conducted with the real physical Slimebot shows real-time adaptivity. And then, an improved mechanical module driven by DC motors is proposed. The improved one includes not only rather smaller body but also more degrees of freedom that highly reflect simulation results than the old one.
