| | Polypod 38 modules (one node) rendered in a five-legged spider configuration. |
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Polypod represents work done by Mark Yim at Stanford from 1992 to 1994.
Polypod is a bi-unit modular robot. This means that the robot is built up of
exactly two types of modules that are
repeated many times. This repetition makes manufacturing easier and cheaper.
Dynamic reconfigurability allows the robot to be highly versatile, reconfiguring
itself to whatever shape best suits the current task. To study this versatility,
locomotion was chosen as the class of tasks for examination.
By the time Mark graduated in 1994, he had constructed 11 modules and
simulated up to 180.
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