Is MEMS the best technology for future robot!
If you look at the recently published robotic research done by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the basic physical unit to construct a robot is small-sized electromechanical system integrated with electronics. Researchers at MIT have developed cube like blocks, which can assemble themselves into different shapes. The concept called modular robots is becoming realistic.
The cube like blocks called M-Blocks have no external moving parts. They can climb over and around one another, leap through the air, roll across the ground, and even move while suspended upside down from metallic surfaces. See the picture below how a single block looks like.
Each M-Block is a flywheel that can rotate at speeds of 20,000 revolutions per minute. The angular momentum to the cube is created by suddenly stopping the rotating flywheel. These M-Blocks attached to each other by using permanent magnets on the walls of the cube. Various techniques can be employed for the individual blocks to connect to each other. Self assembling robot technology such as this is going to be the best technology for robots to do humanlike physical activities. To achieve static stability, MIT researchers have used magnets in such a way that, they rotate so that North Pole of one magn...
Each M-Block is a flywheel that can rotate at speeds of 20,000 revolutions per minute. The angular momentum to the cube is created by suddenly stopping the rotating flywheel. These M-Blocks attached to each other by using permanent magnets on the walls of the cube. Various techniques can be employed for the individual blocks to connect to each other. Self assembling robot technology such as this is going to be the best technology for robots to do humanlike physical activities. To achieve static stability, MIT researchers have used magnets in such a way that, they rotate so that North Pole of one magn...
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