Publications

Most of our papers are available as pdfs from this site. This page is organized by the different topics but if you click on most recent articles they are sorted by year. Or, if you'd like to get a sense of topics we work on, take a look at the selected articles.

General

Most Recent Articles | Selected Articles | PhD Theses | Overview Articles

Bio-inspired Multi-Agent Systems, Robotics, and Networks

Programmable Self-Assembly: Bio-inspired, Modular Robots, and Swarms
Programmable Self-Adaptation: Modular Robots and Multi-Agent Systems
Collective Construction: Extended Stigmergy and Termes Project
Microrobot Colonies: The Robobee Project and Ant-inspired Autonomy
Self-Organizing Sensor Networks: Sync and Desync

Multi-cellular Systems Biology and Bio-inspired Multi-Agent Theory

Self-Assembly in Epithelial Tissues: From Cell Division to Network Topology
Global-to-local Theory: Pattern Formation in Spatial Multi-Agent Systems

Publications Sorted by Topic

Selected Articles

TERMES: An Autonomous Robotic System for Three-Dimensional Collective Construction
Kirstin Petersen, Radhika Nagpal, Justin Werfel
Robotics: Science and Systems Conference (RSS), 2011 (pdf)

Kilobot: A Low Cost Scalable Robot System for Collective Behaviors
Michael Rubenstein, Nicholas Hoff, Radhika Nagpal
Technical Report TR-06-11, Harvard University, June 2011 (pdf)

A Self-Adaptive Framework for Modular Robots in Dynamic Environments: Theory and Applications
Chih-han Yu, Radhika Nagpal
Intl Journal of Robotics Research, Oct 2010 (link), (pdf)

Bio-inspired Active Soft Orthotic Device for Ankle Foot Pathologies
Yong-lae Park, Bor-rong Chen, Diana Young, Leia Stirling, Rob Wood, Eugene Goldfield, Radhika Nagpal
Intl. Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS), Sept 2011. (pdf)

Automated Global-to-Local Programming in 1-D Spatial Multi-Agent Systems
Daniel Yamins, Radhika Nagpal,
Intl. Conf on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), 2008. (pdf)

DESYNC: Self-Organizing Desynchronization and TDMA on Wireless Sensor Networks.
Julius Degesys, Ian Rose, Ankit Patel, Radhika Nagpal.
International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN), April 2007. (pdf)

The Emergence of Geometric Order in Proliferating Metazoan Epithelia,
Ankit Patel, Radhika Nagpal (Harvard) Matthew Gibson, Norbert Perrimon (Harvard Medical School)
Nature, 442(7106):1038-41, Aug 31, 2006 (pdf)

Extended Stigmergy in Collective Construction
Justin Werfel and Radhika Nagpal
IEEE Intelligent Systems 21(2): 20-28 (2006) (pdf)

Programmable Self-Assembly Using Biologically-Inspired Multiagent Control,
Radhika Nagpal,
Intl Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), Bologna, Italy, July 2002. (pdf)

Theses

Topological biases and feedbacks in proliferating tissues
William Tyler Gibson,
Doctoral Thesis, Harvard University, Sept 2011. (pdf)

Multi-Robot Foraging for Swarms of Simple Robots
Nicholas Hoff,
Doctoral Thesis, Harvard University, May 2011. (pdf)

Biologically-Inspired Control for Self-Adaptive Multiagent Systems
Chih-Han Yu.
Doctoral Thesis, Harvard University, Apr 2010. (pdf)
2010 Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation Award, runner-up prize.

Modeling and Inferring Cleavage Patterns in Proliferating Epithelia
Ankit Patel.
Doctoral Thesis, Harvard University, Nov 2008. (pdf)

A Theory of Local-to-Global Algorithms for One-Dimensional Spatial Multi-Agent Systems
Daniel Yamins,
Doctoral thesis, Harvard University, Feb 2008. (pdf)

Anthills Built to Order: Automating Construction with Artificial Swarms
Justin Werfel,
Doctoral thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2006. (pdf)

Programmable Self-Assembly: Constructing Global Shape Using Biologically-Inspired Local Interactions and Origami Mathematics,
Radhika Nagpal,
Doctoral Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June 2001. (ps)

[Top]

Programmable Self-Adaptation: Modular Robots and Multi-Agent Systems

Active Modular Elastomer Sleeve for Soft Wearable Assistance Robots
Yong-Lae Park, Bor-rong Chen, Carmel Majidi, Rob Wood, Radhika Nagpal, Eugene Goldfield
IEEE Intl. Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS), Oct 2012. (pdf)

Applicability of Shape Memory Alloy Wire for an Active Soft Orthotic
Leia Stirling, Chih-han Yu, Jason Miller, Eliot Hawkes, Rob Wood, Eugene Goldfield, Radhika Nagpal
Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, Feb 2011 (DOI: 10.1007/s11665-011-9858-7.) (pdf)

A Self-Adaptive Framework for Modular Robots in Dynamic Environment: Theory and Applications
Chih-han Yu, Radhika Nagpal
Intl Journal of Robotics Research, Oct 2010 (link)

Biologically-Inspired Control for Self-Adaptive Multiagent Systems
Chih-Han Yu.
Doctoral Thesis, Harvard University, Apr 2010. (pdf)

Biologically-Inspired Control for Multi-Agent Self-Adaptive Tasks
Chih-Han Yu, Radhika Nagpal.
Twenty-Fourth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2010. (pdf)
New scientific and technical advances in research (Nectar) Track

Collective Decision-Making in Multi-Agent Systems by Implicit Leadership
Chih-Han Yu, Justin Werfel, Radhika Nagpal.
Intl. Conf on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), 2010. (pdf)

Coordinating Collective Locomotion in an Amorphous Modular Robot
Chih-Han Yu, Justin Werfel, Radhika Nagpal.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2010. (pdf)

Mechanical Design and Locomotion of Modular-Expanding Robots
Rebecca Belisle, Chih-Han Yu, Radhika Nagpal.
Modular Robotics Workshop, IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2010. (pdf)

Self-Adapting Modular Robotics: A Generalized Distributed Consensus Framework
Chih-Han Yu, Radhika Nagpal.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2009. (pdf)
Also see Video Paper, IROS 2009 (Video, youtube link ) (pdf)

Morpho: A Self-Deformable Modular Robot Inspired By Cellular Structure
Chih-Han Yu, Kristina Haller, Donald Ingber, Radhika Nagpal.
IEEE Intl. Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2008. (pdf)

Sensing-based Shape Formation Tasks on Modular Multi-Robot Systems: A Theoretical Study
Chih-Han Yu, Radhika Nagpal,
Intl. Conf on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), 2008. (pdf)
Finalist for Best Student Paper Award.

Self-organizing Environmentally-adaptive Shapes on a Modular Robot
Chih-Han Yu, FX Williems, Donald Ingber, Radhika Nagpal
IEEE Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Oct, 2007 (pdf)

Collective Construction of Environmentally-Adaptive Structures
Justin Werfel, Donald Ingber, Radhika Nagpal
IEEE Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Oct, 2007 (pdf)

[Top]

Collective Construction: Extended Stigmergy and Termes Project

Distributed Amorphous Ramp Construction in Unstructured Environments
Nils Napp, Radhika Nagpal
Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS), Nov 2012. (pdf)

Materials and Mechanisms for Amorphous Robotic Construction
Nils Napp, Olive Rappoli, Jessica Wu, Radhika Nagpal
Intl. Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS), Oct 2012. (pdf)

Distributed Multi-Robot Algorithms for the TERMES 3D Collective Construction System
Justin Werfel, Kirstin Petersen, Radhika Nagpal
Modular Robotics Workshop, Intl. Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS), Sept 2011. (pdf)

TERMES: An Autonomous Robotic System for Three-Dimensional Collective Construction
Kirstin Petersen, Radhika Nagpal, Justin Werfel
Robotics: Science and Systems Conference, RSS 2011

Three-dimensional construction with mobile robots and modular blocks.
Justin Werfel and Radhika Nagpal.
International Journal of Robotics Research, 27 (3-4): 463-479 (2008) (pdf)
(Workshop paper, Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robots, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Sept 2006 (pdf))

Collective Construction of Environmentally-Adaptive Structures
Justin Werfel, Donald Ingber, Radhika Nagpal
IEEE Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Oct, 2007 (pdf)

Anthills Built to Order: Automating Construction with Artificial Swarms
Justin Werfel,
Doctoral thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2006. (pdf)

Collective Construction Using Lego Robots,
Crystal Schuil, Matthew Valente, Justin Werfel, Radhika Nagpal,
Robot Exhibition, National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) July 2006. (pdf)
Received Technical Innovation Award for "elegant connection of theory and design".

Extended Stigmergy in Collective Construction
Justin Werfel and Radhika Nagpal
IEEE Intelligent Systems 21(2): 20-28 (2006). (pdf)

Distributed Construction by Mobile Robots with Enhanced Building Blocks,
Justin Werfel, Yaneer Bar-Yam, Daniela Rus, and Radhika Nagpal,
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 2006. (pdf)

Building Patterned Structures with Robot Swarms,
Justin Werfel, Yaneer Bar-Yam, Radhika Nagpal,
Intl. Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI '05), August 2005. (pdf)

[Top]

Microrobot Colonies: The Robobee Project and Ant-inspired Autonomy

Collective Transport of Complex Objects by Simple Robots: Theory and Experiments
Mike Rubenstein, Adrian Cabrera, Justin Werfel, Golnaz Habibi, James McLurkin, Radhika Nagpal
Intl. Conf. on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), May 2013. (pdf)

Flight of the Robobees
Ribert Wood, Radhika Nagpal, Gu-Yeon Wei
Scientific American, March 2013. (link)

A Comparison of Deterministic and Stochastic Approaches
for Allocating Spatially Dependent Tasks in Micro-Aerial Vehicle Collectives
Karthik Dantu, Spring Berman, Bryan Kate, Radhika Nagpal
IEEE Intl. Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS), Oct 2012. (pdf)

Affect of Sensor and Actuator Quality on Robot Swarm Algorithm Performance
Nicholas Hoff, Robert Wood, Radhika Nagpal
Intl. Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS), Sept 2011. (pdf)

Optimization of Stochastic Strategies for Spatially Inhomogeneous Robot Swarms: A Case Study in Commercial Pollination
Spring Berman, Radhika Nagpal, Adam Halasz
Intl. Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS), Sept 2011. (pdf)

Design of Control Policies for Spatially Inhomogeneous Robot Swarms with Application to Commercial Pollination
Spring Berman, Vijay Kumar, and Radhika Nagpal
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA, 2011 (pdf)

Distributed Colony-Level Algorithm Switching for Robot Swarm Foraging
Nicholas Hoff Robert Wood, Radhika Nagpal
Intl Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems, DARS 2010 (pdf)

Two Foraging Algorithms for Robot Swarms Using Only Local Communication
Nicholas Hoff, Amelia Sagoff, Robert J. Wood, Radhika Nagpal
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, ROBIO 2010 (pdf)

Positional Communication and Private Information in Honeybee Foraging Models
Peter Bailis, Radhika Nagpal, Justin Werfel
Intl Conference on Swarms Intelligence, ANTs 2010 (pdf)
Best Student Paper Award

KiloBot: A Robotic Module for Demonstrating Collective Behaviors
Mike Rubenstein, Radhika Nagpal.
Modular Robotics Workshop, IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2010. (pdf)

[Top]

Self-Organizing Sensor Networks

Towards Desynchronization of Multi-hop Topologies.
Julius Degesys and Radhika Nagpal.
IEEE Intl. Conf. on Self-Organising Systems (SASO), 2008. (pdf)

Desynchronization: The Theory of Self-Organizing Algorithms for Round-Robin Scheduling
Ankit Patel, Julius Degesys, Radhika Nagpal
IEEE Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO), July 2007, (pdf)

Firefly-Inspired Sensor Network Synchronicity with Realistic Radio Effects ,
Geoff Werner-Allen, Geetika Tewari, Ankit Patel, Matt Welsh, Radhika Nagpal,
ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys'05), November 2005. (pdf)

Experimental Results and Theoretical Analysis of a Self-Organizing Global Coordinate System for Ad Hoc Sensor Networks,
Jonathan Bachrach, Radhika Nagpal, Micheal Salib, Howard Shrobe,
Telecommunications Systems Journal, Special Issue on Wireless System Networks, Kluwer Academic Publishing, 2003. (pdf)

Organizing a Global Coordinate System from Local Information on an Ad Hoc Sensor Network
Radhika Nagpal, Howard Shrobe, Jonathan Bachrach,
International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN '03), April 2003 (pdf)

[Top]

Self-Assembly in Epithelial Tissues: From Cell Division to Network Topology

Control of the Mitotic Cleavage Plane by Local Epithelial Topology
William Tyler Gibson, J. Veldhuis, B. Rubinstein, H. Cartwright, N. Perrimon, W. Brodland,
Radhika Nagpal, and Matthew C. Gibson
Cell, Volume 144, Issue 3, 414-426, 4 February 2011 (10.1016/j.cell.2011.12.035) (pdf)
featured in Cell highlights (" Funky shapes and Pushy neighbors")

Modeling and Inferring Cleavage Patterns in Proliferating Epithelia.
Ankit Patel, William Tyler Gibson, Matt Gibson, Radhika Nagpal
PLoS Comput Biol 5(6):e1000412, June 2009 (open access)

Modeling and Inferring Cleavage Patterns in Proliferating Epithelia
Ankit Patel.
Doctoral Thesis, Harvard University, Nov 2008. (pdf)

Epithelial topology. Problems and Paradigms
Radhika Nagpal, Ankit Patel, Matt Gibson
BioEssays 30(3):260-266, March 2008 (pdf)

[Top]

Global-to-local Theory

A Theory of Local-to-Global Algorithms for One-Dimensional Spatial Multi-Agent Systems
Daniel Yamins,
Doctoral thesis, Harvard University, Feb 2008. (pdf)

Automated Global-to-Local Programming in 1-D Spatial Multi-Agent Systems
Daniel Yamins, Radhika Nagpal,
Intl. Conf on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), 2008. (pdf)

Global-to-Local Programming: Design and Analysis for Amorphous Computers
Radhika Nagpal, Daniel Yamins
IEEE Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO), July 2007
Tutorial: Overview, Part 1, Part 2, Notes for part 2

Towards a Theory of "Local to Global" in Distributed Multi-Agent Systems (I),
Daniel Yamins,
Autonomous Agents and Multi Agent Systems Conferences (AAMAS), 2005. (pdf)

Towards a Theory of "Local to Global" in Distributed Multi-Agent Systems (II),
Daniel Yamins,
Autonomous Agents and Multi Agent Systems Conferences (AAMAS), 2005. (pdf)

[Top]

Programmable Self-Assembly: Bio-inspired, Modular Robots and Swarms

Kilobot: A Low Cost Scalable Robot System for Collective Behaviors
Michael Rubenstein, Christian Ahler, Radhika Nagpal
IEEE Intl. Conf on Robotics and Automation (ICRA),2012. (pdf)
Also see,
Michael Rubenstein, Nicholas Hoff, Radhika Nagpal
Technical Report TR-06-11, Harvard University (pdf)

KiloBot: A Robotic Modules for Demonstrating Collective Behaviors
Mike Rubenstein, Radhika Nagpal.
Modular Robotics Workshop, IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2010. (pdf)

Towards a Common Comparison Framework for Global-to-Local Programming of Self-assembling Robotic Systems
Justin Werfel and Radhika Nagpal
Workshop on Self-reconfigurable Robot Systems and Applications (site)
IEEE Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Oct, 2007
(short paper), (full tech report)

Robust and Self-repairing Formation Control for Swarms of Mobile Agents,
Jimming Cheng, Winston Cheng, Nagpal,
National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI '05), July 2005. (pdf)

Self-repair and Scale-independent Self-reconfiguration (for a modular robot),
Kasper Stoy, Radhika Nagpal,
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Sept 2004. (pdf)

Self-reconfiguration using Directed Growth (for a modular robot),
Kasper Stoy, Radhika Nagpal,
International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARs), France, June23-25, 2004. (pdf)

Engineering Amorphous Computing Systems,
Radhika Nagpal, Marco Mamei,
Invited chapter in Methodologies and Software Engineering for Agent Systems, Kluwer Academic Publishing, 2003. (pdf)

Towards a Catalog of Biologically-inspired Primitives,
Radhika Nagpal,
Workshop on Engineering Self-organising Applications, Autonomous Agents and Multiagents Systems Conference (AAMAS), 2003, LNAI 2977. (pdf)

Programming Methodology for Biologically-Inspired Self-Assembling Systems,
Radhika Nagpal, Attila Kondacs, Catherine Chang,
AAAI Spring Symposium on Computational Synthesis: From Basic Building Blocks to High Level Functionality, March 2003
published as AAAI Technical Report. (extended abstract), (paper (pdf))

Self-Assembly and Self-Repairing Topologies,
Lauren Clement, Radhika Nagpal,
Workshop on Adaptability in Multi-Agent Systems, RoboCup Australian Open, January 2003. (pdf)

Programmable Self-Assembly Using Biologically-Inspired Multiagent Control,
Radhika Nagpal,
Proceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), Bologna, Italy, July 2002. (pdf)

Programmable Pattern-Formation and Scale-Independence,
Radhika Nagpal,
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS), New Hampshire, June 2002. (pdf)

Amorphous Computing,
Harold Abelson, Don Allen, Daniel Coore, Chris Hanson, George Homsy, Thomas Knight, Radhika Nagpal, Erik Rauch, Gerald Sussman, and Ron Weiss,
Communications of the ACM, Volume 43, Number 5, May 2000. (pdf)

Programming Biological Cells,
Ron Weiss, George Homsy, and Radhika Nagpal,
International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, Wild & Crazy Ideas Session, Oct 1998. (pdf)

[Top]

Overview Articles

Epithelial topology. Problems and Paradigms
Radhika Nagpal, Ankit Patel, Matt Gibson
BioEssays 30(3):260-266, March 2008 (pdf)

Self-Organizing Shape and Pattern: From Cells to Robots,
Radhika Nagpal,
IEEE Intelligent Systems 21(2), 2006. (pdf)

Engineering Amorphous Computing Systems,
Radhika Nagpal, Marco Mamei,
Invited chapter in Methodologies and Software Engineering for Agent Systems, Kluwer Academic Publishing, 2003. (pdf)