Friday 4 October 2013

MIT M-Blocks

I know, I know, my friends....  This has nothing whatsoever to do with Armdroids, but these self assembling cubes revealed today by MIT are totally awesome....

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/simple-scheme-for-self-assembling-robots-1004.html

I have to say, I really am taken by the relative simplicity of their design....   They can flip, rotate, jump, and snap together, all by wireless computer control.    It's really amazing to think in the 1980's the Armdroid seemed like technology that came straight out of Star Wars, and yet today.... we have these......


The BBC news website described these as having similarities to the 'Terminator' liquid steel which had the ability to form solid shapes.

I wounder if that will ever happen in my life time ?







One thing however that is on my mind is the concept of developing an open-source Humanoid Robot, using serial based digital servos, carbon fiber chassis for lightness & strength, maybe a Raspberry Pi as the main board....   Certainly has had my mind thinking about it as a potential next project....   After all, this is an area of robotics i'm rather passionate about!

Anyway, in the meantime, and a little more down to earth....  Armdroid....    A relatively simple job for the evening was dabbing the ends of the kevlar string using super glue as per the recommendation in the instructions to prevent the string from fraying.   What worked best for me, was applying the glue using a fine modelling brush, as some of the strings are in pretty inaccessible places.

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