Unknown - Self-assembling Computer Memory Device
Archive for Robots - Building Management
MultiScale Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich - StomachBot: Magnetic Self-Assembly of Swallowable Modular Robots
Modular robotic system that can be swallowed and will assemble inside the G.I. Tract for therapeutic and diagnostic procedures. This research involves the investigation of the self-assembly of the ARES robot inside the stomach. Using a specific magnet configuration on the connection face, assembly success rates of up to 90% are possible.
See website here
Unknown - Hexapod Robot CNC Router
Incredible robotic creation device. Just imagine if we had swarms of synced devices.
James McLurkin - Swarm Robotics
To create robots that can explore caves, landmines or even Mars, the robots must be plentiful and autonomous. The Swarm, a fleet of 100 robots, runs on the Swarm Operating System (SwarmOS), which is based on distributed algorithms that allow the input or commands to be divided among multiple recipients. This software is also scalable, so that the number of robots in the swarm can increase or decrease without affecting the work accomplishments of the group. While a centralized system is easier to program and control, it is not readily scalable and thus does not react well if one member of the group fails to perform during the task. Distributed algorithms also set the platform for local communications among the robots so each can work independently toward achieving one common goal.
website here
Usman Hague - Reconfigurable House
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.
Max Dean - 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.
Phillip Beesley - Implant Matrix
Implant Matrix is an interactive geotextile that could be used for reinforcing landscapes and buildings of the future. A network of mechanisms reacts to human occupants as erotic prey. The structure responds to human presence with subtle grasping and sucking motions, ingesting organic materials and incorporating them into a new hybrid entity.
Implant Matrix is composed of interlinking filtering ‘pore’ within a lightweight structural system. Primitive interactive systems employ capacitance sensors, shape-memory alloy wire actuators and distributed microprocessors. The matrix is fabricated by laser cutting direct from digital models. Implant Matrix was installed at the InterAccess Media Arts Centre in Toronto.
More information here
Stephen Gage - 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.”’
See article here.
John Storrs Hall - Utility Fog
Utility Fog is a hypotehtical collection of tiny robots, envisioned by Dr. John Storrs Hall while he was thinking about a nanotechnological replacement for car seatbelts. The robots would be microscopic, with extending arms reaching in several different directions, and could perform lattice reconfiguration. Grabbers at the ends of the arms would allow the robots (or foglets) to mechanically link to one another and share both information and energy, enabling them to act as a continuous substance with mechanical and optical properties that could be varied over a wide range. Each foglet would have substantial computing power, and would be able to communicate with its neighbors.
While the foglets would be micro-scale, construction of the foglets would require full molecular nanotechnology. Each bot would be in the shape of a dodecahedron with 12 arms extending outwards. Each arm would have 4 degrees of freedom. When linked together the foglets would form an octet truss. The foglets’ bodies would be made of aluminum oxide rather than combustible diamond to avoid creating a fuel air explosive.
