The SuperBot is one of the most highly adaptive robots I have seen to date. Most robots can tackle only one task at a time, that for which they were specialized. The SuperBot, on the other hand, is made up entirely of individual robots that can run by themselves or be put together to communicate with each other and move in creative ways. The robot was created by USC’s Information Sciences Institute.
Superbot consists of Lego-like but autonomous robotic modules that can reconfigure into different systems for different tasks. Examples of configurable systems include rolling tracks or wheels (for efficient travel), spiders or centipedes (for climbing), snakes (for burrowing in ground), long arms (for inspection and repair in space), and devices that can fly in micro-gravity environment.
Each module is a complete robotic system and has a power supply, micro- controllers, sensors, communication, three degrees of freedom, and six connecting faces (front, back, left, right, up and down) to dynamically connect to other modules.
“This design allows flexible bending, docking, and continuous rotation. A single module can move forward, back, left, right, flip-over, and rotate as a wheel. Modules can communication with each other for totally distributed control and can support arbitrary module reshuffling during their operation.
I have compiled all of the available videos of this robot for your viewing pleasure.
[via USC Information Sciences Institute]
