Mike Dugan

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Mike Dugan’s research centers on modular robotics, focusing on robustness, self-repair, and adaptive locomotion in distributed systems. His most-cited work, "Robustness and self-repair in modular robots" (2007, 5 citations), demonstrates a landmark experiment where a 15-module bipedal robot withstands a severe disturbance—a human kick to its midsection—causing it to break into three separate clusters of five modules each, yet autonomously reassembles and continues walking. This video-based study visually proves how modular robots can recover from catastrophic failures without external intervention, a foundational contribution to resilient robotic design. Dugan’s work directly addresses challenges in unstructured environments, where traditional robots would fail. Though his citation count is modest, the impact of his self-repair demonstration has influenced subsequent research in collective robotics and fault-tolerant systems. His achievements highlight the potential for modular robots to operate in hazardous or remote settings, such as disaster response or space exploration, where manual repair is impossible. Dugan’s research remains a touchstone for engineers seeking to build robots that heal themselves.