Modbots

LCModular robotics

What is a robot

A stand-alone hybrid computer system that performs physical and computational activities. Robots are designed for many purposes. In manufacturing, they are used for welding, riveting, scraping and painting. They are also deployed for demolition, fire and bomb fighting, nuclear site inspection, industrial cleaning, laboratory use, medical surgery, agriculture, forestry, office mail delivery as well as a myriad of other tasks. Increasingly, more artificial intelligence is being added.

Analog and DigitalRobots use analog sensors for recognizing real-world objects and digital computers for their direction. Analog to digital converters convert temperature, motion, pressure, sound and images into binary code for the robot's computer. The computer directs the physical actions of the arms and joints by pulsing their motors.

Huey, Dewey and Louie Named after Donald Duck's famous nephews, robots at this Wayne, Michigan plant apply sealant to prevent possible water leakage into the car. Huey (top) seals the drip rails while Dewey (right) seals the interior weld seams. Louie is outside of the view of this picture. (Image courtesy of Ford Motor Company.)

What happens when you have many similar robots working together

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The idea behind interaction in the Bubbles project is about emergent behavior. There isn’t a control

algorithm behind what it does; it operates by a few very simple rules. How the bubbles interact with humans

over the course of an evening is impossible to predict. If there were a only a few interactions it is

not very interesting but as you have more and more the behavior gets much more complex, yet the system does not. The behavior becomes synergistic. The idea is to use numerous discrete sensors and actuators which provide control through very specific response. The important point is that each individual actuator is

controlled by a decentralized controller at a local level. This model of decentralized identification and control is based on neural networks simplifying the

implementation of the control. Simplified implementation based of decentralization shows great

promise in having two outstanding benefits; both in terms of the robustness of the system and the economic feasibility. Both of these issues were

paramount in the Bubbles project as it was unsupervised and open to the general public.

Traditionally architects and engineers have created spaces through static geometries that foster or dictate the activity that is supposed to take place there. The quality of space has been traditionally

thought of as being predetermined. People then have always been expected more or less to adapt to the

spaces provided them. If a building could adapt to our desires however, it would also shape our experiences.

If our experiences are shaped through interactive environments we have a new design set to respond to.

To what extent architects choose to dictate static experiences as oppose to respond and create unknown experiences is an area of potentially great importance.

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Discrete design in architecture

Opening Windows for Optimized Thermal Conditions

Windows and Thermostat Understanding Respective Actions and Operating Co-operatively

The end of mechanics

•Controlling and Tailoring Sound Produced by Engineered Structures

Mit: Student project: junko nagakura

Edge monkeys

Stephen Gage and Will Thorn described a new type of robotic fleet that, in the future, ‘would be to patrol building facades, regulating energy usage and indoor conditions. Basic duties include closing unattended windows, checking thermostats, and adjusting blinds. But the machines would also “gesture meaningfully to internal occupants” when building users “are clearly wasting energy,” and they are described as “intrinsically delightful and funny.”’

The Reconfigurable House

is built by Usman Haque and Adam Somlai-Fischer and is currently located n Tokyo, Japan until March 2008 as part of NTT ICC 10th anniversary celebrations.The Reconfigurable House is an environment constructed from thousands of low tech components that can be “rewired” by visitors. The project is a critique of ubiquitous computing “smart homes”, which are based on the idea that technology should be invisible to prevent DIY.Smart homes actually aren’t very smart simply because they are pre-wired according to algorithms and decisions made by designers of the systems, rather than the people who occupy the houses.In contrast to such homes, which are not able to adapt structurally over time, the many sensors and actuators of Reconfigurable House can be reconnected endlessly as people change their minds so that the House can take on completely new behaviors.

see video here

Self Constructing Chair

Max Dean, Raffaello D’Andrea, and Matt Donovan have created a chair that has the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct itself. The robot chair can fall apart spontaneously, and then drag itself across the floor and reassemble.

see video here

Simplified implementation based of decentralization shows great promise in having two outstanding benefits; both in terms of therobustness of the system and the economic feasibility. Both of these issues were paramount in the Bubbles project as it was unsupervised and open to the general public.

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Researchers at Xerox Parc have designed a reconfigurable robotic system based on the rhombic dodecahedron. While no working models of this system have been created (that we know of) the possibility of what could be done with this system is immense. Self similar modules have the ability to rotate around each other based on prescribed rules.

Xerox Parc - Self-Assembling Lattice Reconfiguration Robot

Cornel university

ComputationalSynthesis Lab (CCSL)

Digital clay

•Reproducing

•healing

•self-maintenance

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Modification - - organization

Xerox parc – modular robotics

•Polypod and polybot

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

Xerox park

Digital clay

Roboticists at Xerox Parc in Palo Alto have created modular intelligent robotic system. This system however does not use actuators but instead relies on users manipulating objects. These modules have the ability to sense each other and know if their are other objects around them. They use magnets to connect to each other.

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Acm-r5

The Hirose Fukushima Robotics Lab created the acm-r5 based on the mechanics behind snakes. Powered by a lithium-ion battery, the ACM-R5 is a radio-controlled amphibious robot designed to move like its real world counterpart. It can slither or swim underwater for 30 minutes on a full charge. Inside, you’ll find an intricate sensor system (attitude/torque), small-sized camera, and a 32bit micro controller. While this robot seems more like a single object based robot it is made up of self-similar parts that work together to accomplish changing geometrical demands.

Video Links found here and here.

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M-TRAN (Modular Transformer)

self-reconfigurable modular robot that has been developed by AIST andTokyo-Tech since 1998.

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Superbot

Researchers at the Polymorphic Robotics laboratory have designed and manufactured a modular robot called the SuperBot. SuperBot is a modular robot that consists of many reconfigurable modules that can demonstrate multifunction and reconfiguration for running, climbing, structuring, and many other activities in real environments.

See more info hereSee video here, here and here

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DRL Reconfigurable Modules

Researchers at the Dartmouth Robotics Laboratory have developed a module capable of reconfiguring at a large scale. This self-reconfiguring robot consists of a set of identical modules that can dynamically and autonomously reconfigure in a variety of shapes, to best fit the terrain, environment, and task.

To see more info click here.Video link here.

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Cmu waalbots

Researchers at CMU Robotics Lab have created gravity defying robots called Waalbots. The tiny hairs on a gecko’s feet, called setae, enable it to stick to surfaces. This is due to an intermolecular attraction between the setae and the surface, known as Van der Waals forces. A team at the NanoRobotics Lab, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), has used a dry elastomer adhesive that mimics setae and enables a robot to climb walls and ceilings. However the CMU Waalbot has far greater sticking power because its fibers are twice as adhesive as the setae of geckoes.

link http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/waalbots/tri-leg.shtml

video link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF5ZU3lb4rA

http://nanoarchitecture.net/article/biomimetic-dry-adhesives

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Bio-robots Mini-wegs

Three spoked appendages, called “wheel-legs”, combine the speed and simplicity of wheels with the high mobility of legs. The robot can surmount obstacles significantly greater than the radius of the wheel-legs - a difficult feat for wheeled vehicles.To surmount obstacles of much greater relative magnitude, a version of the robot, dubbed Jumping Mini-Whegs™, has been developed. It can surmount obstacles of 2-3 body lengths high, such as a stair. Based on abstracted biological principles, this small robot combines simplicity, robustness and reliability to provide a desirable combination of speed, mobility and versatility.

see website heresee video here and here

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IST swarm bots

Researchers at the IST have developed a network of self-organizing and self-assembling robots. This system composed of a number of simple, insect-like robots, built out of relatively cheap components, capable of self-assembling and self-organizing to adapt to environments. This novel approach finds its theoretical roots in recent studies in swarm intelligence, that is, in studies of the self-organising and self-assembling capabilities shown by social insects and other animalsocieties.

more information herevideo link here, here and here

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DRL Networked Mobile Robots

Researchers at the Darmouth Robotics Laboratory have developed a network of mobile robots capable of communicating with each other to accomplish different states. They have created a number of algorithms that can organize and reorganize the mobile robots.

See link heresee video here and here

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Modular Robots

Modular robots can form, re-form and move as required. A table structure breaks up into four stools, which start walking over to their new locations.

Yvan BourquinSwiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne

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Shape planning

Researchers at Xerox Parc in Palo Alto have made a number of very interesting simulations for how objects could reconfigure to create new shapes. These are very useful showing the number of moves and relative time required to reconfigure swarms of objects.

See video here and here.

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Shape planning

Tronic Studio has recently completed an ad for General Electric entitles “Building Dreams”. This video uses a motif of building objects and environments out of self similar parts . A viewer moves through an entire landscape that builds itself out of these parts.

see video here

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Meta-Morphic ArchitectureMiles Kemp

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The main idea behind this project was to develop a series of self-similar nested shapes that have the ability to be reprogrammed by the user post-production to accommodate changing demands. To accomplish this task in architectural terms he developed an entire palette of robots (materials, interactivity, and mechanical) that come together at specific instances to achieve a desired geometry.The scale of the module was extremely important. With technology getting smaller and smaller (nano scale) this project envisioned that these objects would be the size of a fingernail and have the ability to change location. Self similar modules could make new physical connections and move around each other based on connections of self-similar parts.

Meta-Morphic ArchitectureMiles Kemp

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how the world is assembled from ever smaller elements at each relevant scale

Bloodstream Robots

Two Israeli scientists may have created the catalyst for a medical revolution with their new project: a tiny, 1-millimeter-diameter robot which is capable of crawling through human veins and arteries. The bot can cling to vessel walls using small, powerful arms which protrude from a hub in its center. Manned control is accomplished by using a magnetic field outside of the body, and the robot is able to swim against the flow of blood, as well as squeeze through a variety of arterial openings. Right now the doctors don’t know what the medical applications might be, though they speculate that a large number of the bots could be used to fight certain types of cancer.

Technion university, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/875277.html

Sandia Mini-Robots

At 1/4 cubic inch and weighing less than an ounce, it is possibly the smallest autonomous untethered robot ever created. Powered by three watch batteries, it rides on track wheels and consists of an 8K ROM processor, temperature sensor, and two motors that drive the wheels. Enhancements being considered include a miniature camera, microphone, communication device, and chemical micro-sensor.

See article here

Scale

How Small Can They Get? By 2020, scientists at Rutgers University believe that nano-sized robots will be injected into the bloodstream and administer a drug directly to an infected cell. This robot has a carbon nanotube body, a biomolecular motor that propels it and peptide limbs to orient itself.

For more information, see http://bionano.rutgers.edu/Mavroidis_Final_Report.pdf.

…”Eventually, millions of microscopic units will be used together to make infinitely flexible machines, fit for any task.

Future generations of robots are more likely to be mutating machines, rather than the single-function devices.”

Scale

It is well known that outer space, planetary, military and in-body medical missions and interventions will benefit tremendously by decreasing considerably the size, weight and cost of hardware and payloads. The development of biomolecular nano-components and devices may bethe technological solution in this problem. These devices will be lightweight and hence easy and cost-efficient to be launched or introduced into remote or difficult to reach worlds. They will be designed to be self-replicating, a property that will help create computing stations andmanufacturing sites on remote and inaccessible environment and in turn, develop a whole nanoscale industry.

For more information, http://bionano.rutgers.edu/Mavroidis_Final_Report.pdf

FIGURE 2: The nanorobot attaches on the cell and projects a drug to repair or destroy the infected cell.

FIGURE 1: A "nano-robot" flowing inside ablood vessel, finds an infected cell.

USING BIO-NANO-DEVICES FOR SPACE COLONIZATION

Peering into the future, we can envision a world where life does not take place before our eyes, yet at a level where the building blocks of life are interacting. This world of nanotechnology will enable us to explore, venture, and inhabit places beyond our current realms of reality. But toreach this state of technology, we must begin with the basics. We must understand the biological components that draw a parallel to current macro-robotics. With this knowledge in hand we can continue forward and join these components into assemblies. Some of these assemblies willexecute specific tasks, while others perform a number of different operations. Eventually these bio-nano-robots will interact with one another, collaborating to build, repair, and manipulate other objects in the nano-world. Once these nano-robots are shown to sustain and create life, transporting them to far away planets will yield results not currently possible.

For more information, http://bionano.rutgers.edu/Mavroidis_Final_Report.pdf

Nanocity

the ability to program our environment can have a profound effect on issues of sustainability through energy efficiency and a reduction of raw waste

Helio DisplayProject of OdescO – product design, computation, and fabrication(Collaboration with io2 technology)

USING BIO-NANO-DEVICES FOR SPACE COLONIZATION

30-50 Years: Future missions to planets will be undertaken by bio-nanorobots,in which they will survey and colonize the planets. Robots will be designed tobuild and maintain the environment that they have created, which will one day be stablefor human colonization.

For more information, http://bionano.rutgers.edu/Mavroidis_Final_Report.pdf

USING BIO-NANO-DEVICES FOR SPACE COLONIZATION

The nano-robots will begin to colonize and build a new world, a world where we may one daythrive. Carrying out construction projects in hostile environments is a prime example of thebenefits of these machines. Self-replicating robots, utilizing local materials and local energy willassemble space habitats that can be completely constructed by remote control. Other robots will be used not to colonize, but to maintain life by providing proper energy needed to other systems or organic organisms. Nanometer size computers, actuators, and sensors will allow robots to rebuild damaged parts of existing structures, such as walls, transportation vessels, and even space suits. There will be a new world built from bio-nano-robots that function on the nanometer scale, building and maintaining an environment where they, and we, may one day live. Figure 6 shows a vision of an established nano-industry on a planetary surface, composed of nano-computing stations, nano-manipulators and other mechanical systems, and thus, providing the foundations towards establishing colonies on uninhibited planets as well as searching for life forms on other planets.

For more information, http://bionano.rutgers.edu/Mavroidis_Final_Report.pdf

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Fox Linwww.foxlin.com

robotecturewww.robotecture.com

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