Automatically designing the behaviours of falling paper

Abstract

Biological systems exhibit extraordinary levels of diversity. Embodied behaviours are the emergent property of many loosely-coupled parallel processes, from the microscopic level, e.g. materials, to more abstracted levels, e.g. organs and limbs. We summarise our investigations into using a synthetic methodology, i.e. an understanding-by-building approach, for designing the complex interactions of falling paper shapes. By studying how simple systems such as a falling paper shape behave, we can analyse the specific characteristics of the interaction between morphology and the environment, and how this leads to programmable non-trivial behaviours. We present current results and discuss the implications on the future of design in robotics.