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Modular Robots

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the which-module-plays-tony-hawk-3 dept.

levin writes "An article in the latest issue of IEEE spectrum discusses modular robots--robots made of small, identical components or modules. These robots can slither, roll like a tank tread, inchworm, or crawl like a spider. The idea is that modular robots will be not only cheaper to build because the modules are all the same, but will be more able to repair themselves (by shedding damaged modules). Even cooler, each of the 5cm cube modules in Xerox PARC's polybot sports its own PowerPC 555 and 1mb ram."

2 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. But I thought... by inerte · · Score: 1, Redundant

    ... That this was what Lego is for? Build large structures of smaller components.

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    Buy a Nintendo DS Lite
  2. Can you imagine... by steddyj · · Score: 0, Redundant

    a BattleBot made of these?

    Wham! --The pulverizer knocks off an arm, several nodes crawl out from a compartment and shed the broken nodes, reattach to form a new arm.

    From what I have read in the Tournament Rules and Procedures and the Technical Regulations, there is nothing restricting a bot from self-regeneration.

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    Am I Over-Moderating??