The Roombots modules are capable of self-assembling into a chair and can even put themselves away in a storage box. (Image Credit: EPFL)
One day, everyone might want their very own self-assembling furniture in their home or apartment. EPFL’s Roombots have been around for a decade and can move around, lock onto each other, and together, they can turn into furniture, including tables, chairs or whatever else you may need. The idea here is that the small modular robots would be able to transform into furniture proportional to the number of people and animals you live with through an autonomous system.
In a new Roombots research paper, the researchers from EPFL’s Biorobotics Laboratory have upgraded the Roombot technology by making it capable of swarm transformations. They also experimented on how the robots can interact with existing furniture to give it new capabilities, which involve having a chair follow you, and tables that can lift up objects from the floor.
The small modular robots are capable of carrying out complex coordinated tasks through system-level autonomous behaviors. For instance, the completely autonomous system allows it to form into a chair by using an external computer and a ceiling-mounted Kinect device for hand-tracking, avoidance, and user movements.
The Roombots components are capable of allowing the module to carry out complex tasks. (Image Credit: EPFL)
Over the past five years, the Roombots has gone through a number of modifications. The internal mechanics have been redesigned with a new gearbox, connection mechanism, and electronics. It also has new LEDs, a spotlight, proximity sensors and a gripper system. Even more important is that the number of modules has jumped from 2 (the minimum amount needed to experiment with docking/undocking and movement) to 13, which allows the modules to do a lot more than what’s expected of it.
Even though these small modular robots have a lot of advantages, such as a low-per module cost, robustness via replacing malfunctioning modules, and versatility, they can be more difficult to design and program than unitasking robots. However, Roombots seem to be worth the hassle of producing, mainly because they’re so adaptable when it comes to changing tasks.
As it stands now, the researchers are working on physical testing to see what a group of Roombots are capable of, and checking to see if implementing additional tools to the module swarm could allow the robots to perform useful tasks. The team hopes to add object manipulation, which can be difficult for these types of robots. To achieve this, they equipped a Roombots module with a small jamming gripper, which can pick up small, rigid objects within its reach. There isn’t a whole lot within a single module’s reach, but a swarm could help make it reach further by attaching it to those modules.
The researchers are still in the process of trying to get the robot modules to connect to each other robustly, while attempting to fix the deformation issues that take place whenever the Roombots form more significant structures. They hope that by completely modeling the Roombots physics, they will be able to provide better automation to the system. However, despite their ability to self-assemble into furniture like tables and chairs, they can’t support a lot of weight, so sitting on a Roombots chair would likely damage it.
The Roombots will likely need to be redesigned before they’re used in real-world applications. So far, the researchers are already considering upgrades to the modules, which include a vision system, distributed control and “artificial skin” so that humans can safely interact with it.
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