[{"title":"Computational design and fabrication of modular robots with untethered control","_id":"20286","department":[{"_id":"BeBi"}],"date_created":"2025-09-04T09:14:11Z","publication_status":"draft","OA_place":"repository","oa_version":"Preprint","fulldoi":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410","oa":1,"article_processing_charge":"No","project":[{"name":"MATERIALIZABLE: Intelligent fabrication-oriented Computational Design and Modeling","_id":"24F9549A-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"715767"}],"year":"2025","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"type":"preprint","arxiv":1,"abstract":[{"text":"Natural organisms utilize distributed actuation through their musculoskeletal\r\nsystems to adapt their gait for traversing diverse terrains or to morph their\r\nbodies for varied tasks. A longstanding challenge in robotics is to emulate\r\nthis capability of natural organisms, which has motivated the development of\r\nnumerous soft robotic systems. However, such systems are generally optimized\r\nfor a single functionality, lack the ability to change form or function on\r\ndemand, or remain tethered to bulky control systems. To address these\r\nlimitations, we present a framework for designing and controlling robots that\r\nutilize distributed actuation. We propose a novel building block that\r\nintegrates 3D-printed bones with liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) muscles as\r\nlightweight actuators, enabling the modular assembly of musculoskeletal robots.\r\nWe developed LCE rods that contract in response to infrared radiation, thereby\r\nproviding localized, untethered control over the distributed skeletal network\r\nand producing global deformations of the robot. To fully capitalize on the\r\nextensive design space, we introduce two computational tools: one for\r\noptimizing the robot's skeletal graph to achieve multiple target deformations,\r\nand another for co-optimizing skeletal designs and control gaits to realize\r\ndesired locomotion. We validate our framework by constructing several robots\r\nthat demonstrate complex shape morphing, diverse control schemes, and\r\nenvironmental adaptability. Our system integrates advances in modular material\r\nbuilding, untethered and distributed control, and computational design to\r\nintroduce a new generation of robots that brings us closer to the capabilities\r\nof living organisms.","lang":"eng"}],"date_updated":"2026-07-29T13:03:30Z","related_material":{"record":[{"relation":"dissertation_contains","status":"public","id":"20276"}]},"publication":"arXiv","main_file_link":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410","open_access":"1"}],"status":"public","month":"08","author":[{"orcid":"0009-0007-6138-6890","full_name":"Bhargava, Manas","id":"FF8FA64C-AA6A-11E9-99AD-50D4E5697425","first_name":"Manas","last_name":"Bhargava"},{"full_name":"Hiraki, Takefumi","first_name":"Takefumi","last_name":"Hiraki"},{"last_name":"Strugaru","first_name":"Irina-Malina","full_name":"Strugaru, Irina-Malina","id":"2afc607f-f128-11eb-9611-8f2a0dfcf074"},{"last_name":"Zhang","first_name":"Yuhan","full_name":"Zhang, Yuhan"},{"full_name":"Piovarci, Michael","orcid":"0000-0002-5062-4474","id":"62E473F4-5C99-11EA-A40E-AF823DDC885E","first_name":"Michael","last_name":"Piovarci"},{"first_name":"Chiara","full_name":"Daraio, Chiara","last_name":"Daraio"},{"first_name":"Daisuke","full_name":"Iwai, Daisuke","last_name":"Iwai"},{"first_name":"Bernd","id":"49876194-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","full_name":"Bickel, Bernd","orcid":"0000-0001-6511-9385","last_name":"Bickel"}],"day":"31","user_id":"8b945eb4-e2f2-11eb-945a-df72226e66a9","doi":"10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410","external_id":{"arxiv":["2508.05410"]},"corr_author":"1","acknowledgement":"The authors express gratitude to Magali Lorion for assisting in the initial fabrication of LCEs,\r\nPengbin Tang for providing the code for simulating discrete elastic rods, the Imaging and\r\nOptics Facility at ISTA for assisting with the spectrometry measurements, and the MIBA\r\nmachine shop at ISTA for their support in manufacturing various devices.\r\nFunding: This project was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under\r\nthe European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No.\r\n715767 -– MATERIALIZABLE).","date_published":"2025-08-31T00:00:00Z","tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by.png","short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)"},"citation":{"ama":"Bhargava M, Hiraki T, Strugaru I-M, et al. Computational design and fabrication of modular robots with untethered control. <i>arXiv</i>. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410\">10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410</a>","ieee":"M. Bhargava <i>et al.</i>, “Computational design and fabrication of modular robots with untethered control,” <i>arXiv</i>. .","mla":"Bhargava, Manas, et al. “Computational Design and Fabrication of Modular Robots with Untethered Control.” <i>ArXiv</i>, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410\">10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410</a>.","apa":"Bhargava, M., Hiraki, T., Strugaru, I.-M., Zhang, Y., Piovarci, M., Daraio, C., … Bickel, B. (n.d.). Computational design and fabrication of modular robots with untethered control. <i>arXiv</i>. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410\">https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410</a>","ista":"Bhargava M, Hiraki T, Strugaru I-M, Zhang Y, Piovarci M, Daraio C, Iwai D, Bickel B. Computational design and fabrication of modular robots with untethered control. arXiv, <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410\">10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410</a>.","short":"M. Bhargava, T. Hiraki, I.-M. Strugaru, Y. Zhang, M. Piovarci, C. Daraio, D. Iwai, B. Bickel, ArXiv (n.d.).","chicago":"Bhargava, Manas, Takefumi Hiraki, Irina-Malina Strugaru, Yuhan Zhang, Michael Piovarci, Chiara Daraio, Daisuke Iwai, and Bernd Bickel. “Computational Design and Fabrication of Modular Robots with Untethered Control.” <i>ArXiv</i>, n.d. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410\">https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.05410</a>."},"ec_funded":1}]