Modular self-reconfigurable robots consist of many modules that can move
relative to each other, thereby changing the overall shape of the robot.
Developments in micromachining and molecular-scale technologies can
allow
creating such robots with a large number of tiny modules. I will
describe
how multiagent systems provide a useful approach to robust control for
these
robots, particularly dealing with their different physical scales.
Fairly
simple rules for the modules allow the robot to reconfigure for various
locomotion and object manipulation tasks. I will illustrate these
behaviors
through simulation experiments on modular robots currently under
construction. As one example, see
http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.RO/0006030
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