Self-assembling Robot

A Self-assembling Lattice Reconfiguration Robot



Telecube modules are cube shaped modules with faces that can extend out doubling the length of any dimension. Each face "telescopes" out, thus the name. Each face also has a latching mechanism to attach or detach from any other face of a neighboring module. We have experimented with shape memory alloy and permanent switching magnet technologies in various versions of this system.

http://www2.parc.com/spl/projects/modrobots/lattice/telecube/index.html

UWE investigates evolving 'swarm' robots
The University of the West of England (UWE) is a partner in 'Symbrion', a ground breaking new European funded project, which will investigate the principles of how large groups (swarms) of robots can evolve and adapt together into different organisms based on bio-inspired approaches.

The aim of the project is to develop the novel principles behind the ways in which robots can evolve and work together in large 'swarms' so that – eventually - these can be applied to real-world applications. The swarms of robots are capable of forming themselves into a 'symbiotic artificial organism' and collectively interacting with the physical world using sensors.

http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/article.asp?item=1231

Self-assembling Robot Video

Robots with a mind of their own Video

Scientists are now building a new kind of robot capable of self-assembly and doing tasks too difficult or too dangerous for human beings.



Self-Replicating Repairing Robots Video
Engineers at Cornell University have designed this odd-looking machine that can rebuild itself and also could perform repairs on itself.



Modular robot reassembles when kicked apart Video


Modular Robot

Modular Robot Project

MTRAN
modular robots have been intensively investigated mainly by universities and research institutes in Japan and USA since around 1990 as the robots' versatility, flexibility and fault-tolerance has been attracting researchers' interest.

Experiment of self-reconfiguration by 9 module
As MTRAN is rather smaller and lighter than ever, both self-reconfiguration and dynamical motion of a group is made possible

http://staff.aist.go.jp/e.yoshida/test/research-e.htm

PolyBot



PolyBot is made up of many repeated modules. Each module is virtually a robot in and of itself having a computer, a motor, sensors and the ability to chains PolyBotattach to other modules. In some cases, power is supplied off board and passed from module to module. These modules attach together to form , which can be used like an arm or a leg or a finger depending on the task at hand.

http://www2.parc.com/spl/projects/modrobots/chain/polybot/index.html

PolyBot



Polypod is a bi-unit modular robot. This means that the robot is built up of exactly two types of modules that are repeated many times. This repetition makes manufacturing easier and cheaper. Dynamic reconfigurability allows the robot to be highly versatile, reconfiguring itself to whatever shape best suits the current task. To study this versatility, locomotion was chosen as the class of tasks for examination.
http://www2.parc.com/spl/projects/modrobots/chain/polypod/index.html


Digital Clay





At Xerox PARC it is a subset of the modular robotics project. As such it is a stripped down version of a modular robot. That is, there is a) no active coupling and b) no actuation for producing module to module motions. Changes to an assembly of modules is made by a user. But it embodies one very important aspect—that the modules have some capacity to sense or know their own orientation in space with respect to other modules. As such it may be a useful hardware system for testing software, communications, power distribution for physically modular and reconfigurable systems.
http://www2.parc.com/spl/projects/modrobots/lattice/digitalclay/index.html

Modular Snake Robots


Snake robots can use their many internal degrees of freedom to thread through tightly packed volumes accessing locations that people and machinery otherwise cannot use. Moreover, these highly articulated devices can coordinate their internal degrees of freedom to perform a variety of locomotion capabilities that go beyond the capabilities of conventional wheeled and the recently developed legged robots. The true power of these devices is that they are versatile, achieving behaviors not limited to crawling, climbing, and swimming.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biorobotics/projects/modsnake/modsnake.html


MTRAN3 Modular Robot



Modular robot reassembles when kicked apart

A robot developed by roboticists at the University of Pennsylvania is made of modules that can recognise each other.