Stochastic Robots Assemble and Disassemble Themselves

"Stochastic" is another way of saying random, and stochastic robots are robots that harness the powers of randomness to construct themselves. It's a fairly simple idea that can result in fairly complex objects: you've got some number of different modules, which can come together to form a robot. Instead of putting the modules together and building the robot directly, you instead just toss all of the modules and shake it really really hard. As the modules randomly run into each other, each is programed to latch on if it happens to bump into a module that it's supposed to be next to in the final design. And if you do this for long enough, eventually you'll end up with a fully assembled robot. Or that's the basic idea, anyway.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/medical-robots/stochastic-robots-assemble-and-disassemble-themselves

Modular Robots

Robots out on the factory floor pretty much know what's coming. Constrained as they are by programming and geometry, their world is just an assembly line. But for robots operating outdoors, away from civilization, both mission and geography are unpredictable. Here, robots with the ability to change their shape could be of great value, since they could adapt to constantly varying tasks and environments. Modular reconfigurable robots—experimental systems made by interconnecting multiple, simple, similar units--can perform such shape shifting.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/industrial-robots/modular-robots

EPFL Developing Connectors for Modular Floating Robots

This is an artistic rendering of a project that's being developed at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). The Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (LIS) is working on a robot (yes, that's totally a robot) made up of soft, floating modules that connect to each other through electroadhesion.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/epfl-developing-connectors-for-modular-floating-robots

Linkbot: That Modular Robot You've Always Wanted Is Now on Kickstarter

Last month (I don't know how it can possibly be just last month but somehow it is) at Stanford's Robot Block Party, we talked to the guys over at Barobo, who gave us a peek at a modular educational robot system that they were getting ready to Kickstart. The project has now launched, meaning that the time to get a DIY modular robotics kit of your very own is right now.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/linkbot-that-modular-robot-youve-always-wanted-is-now-on-kickstarter

iMobot Brings Robot Modules to Modular Robots

We love the concept behind modular robots: they're simple, cheap, easy to use, and capable of doing anything you want them to do, as long as you're willing to let them reconfigure. They're also easy to fix, and in many cases, capable of fixing themselves. So for example, if you've got a modular humanoid that you decide to kick in the face, it can put itself back together, as long as it's got enough modules attached to each other to enable movement. But single modules, left on their own, are more or less helpless.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/imobot-brings-robot-modules-to-modular-robots

Modular Robots CKBot Module

My group has been working with Mark Yim and his students to design and implement modular robotic systems equipped with smart camera systems that the modules can use to localize themselves. We were able to use this approach to demonstrate modular systems that self assembled after an explosive event, namely a swift kick. This project has been featured in several publications and at Wired NextFest.

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~cjtaylor/RESEARCH/projects/ModularRobots/ModularRobots.html

YaMoR

Project description

We have designed hardware for modular robot units called Yamor (Yet another Modular Robot). The aim of the project is to create robot units that can rapidly be attached to each other in order to create arbitrary multi-unit robot structures. We are interested in developing adaptive algorithms that use local interactions rules between units in order to optimize the global behavior of the multi-unit structure.

http://biorob.epfl.ch/yamor