PhDSupervision:Dhananjay Ipparthi

Personal Information

Name: Dhananjay Ipparthi

Date of arrival in Brussels: 08th February, 2012

Home address: Rue des Vierges 58, 1000 Bruxelles

Telephone number: +32 483 382 207

Academic Activities

14th May, 2012

Literature Review

1. Bhalla, Bentley. Staging the Self-Assembly Process: Inspiration from Biological Development [Manuscript]

Project Work

• Initial designs of Staged Self-Assembly
• Prepare presentation of literature review [completed]

Development

• Staged self-assembly simulation

Laboratory Activities

• Assist Gianpiero in drawing designs for cabinets for robots in the arena
• Assist Touraj in setting up the Kilo-bots

Deliverable

Present an introduction to Self-Reproduction

30th Apr, 2012

Literature Review

1. Stephen Wolfram. New Kind of Science. [Chapters: 1 and 3]
2. Pesavento, Umberto. An implementation of von Neumann's self-reproducing machine
3. Zykov, Mytilinaios, Adams, Lipson. Self-reproducing machines.

Project Work

• Prepare presentation of literature review [80% completed]

Development

• Staged self-assembly review

Laboratory Activities

• Assist Gianpiero in procurement of robot storage cabinets for the Arena

Ideas

• Hand drawn sketch of 3D gear as an idea of machines capable of climbing one another in order to create a smart bridge over a gap.
• Replication inspired by DNA strands and Genetic operations

Deliverable

Present an introduction to Self-Reproduction early in May 2012

26th March, 2012

Literature Review

1. Freitas and Merkle. Kinematic self-replicating machines. [Chapters: 1 and 2]
2. Sipper. Book review of Kinematic self-replicating machines.
3. Penrose and Penrose. A self-reproducing analogue. Nature.
4. Penrose. Self-reproducing machines. Scientific American.
5. Bhalla. Designing self-assembling systems via physically encoded information. PhD thesis. [Chapters: 1 and 2]

Project Work

• Collect available videos and links of self assembling systems
• Prepare presentation of literature review

Development

• Extension of mini project: Add features to the virtual arena and make the robtos find them

Laboratory Activities

• Testing of robots brought back from Lausanne
• Testing new kernel:
  • Connects more reliably to the wifi
  • Hangs during operation of Nithin's script 'swarmorph'

Ideas

• Baseline problem for robots to solve: crossing a bridge
• 3D gear like entity which can create structures

Deliverable

Present an introduction to Self-Reproduction early in May 2012

15th February, 2012

Development

• Carlo has given me a mini project to work on to get me started on Argos. I am working on it.

Laboratory Activities

• In the afternoon on Monday, I will take a look at the Footbots with Arne.
• Alessandro and I have developed a rough plan for the setup of the camera network, we plan to start the execution this week.
• Nithin and I have also initiated talks, and he wants to finalise a few issues before we continue.

Ideas

• Using nuclear fission or fusion models to create multiple agents, but the concern is that these models are unlike biological evolved systems and are not adaptive, versatile or agile.
• Study the evolution of dicarboxylic acids