真实版变形金刚Roombot可自动组成各种家具

在瑞士洛桑联邦理工学院(EPFL)仿生机器人实验室(BIOROB)所开发的一项“疯狂”研究计划中，研究人员们为一款名为“Roombot”的机器人原型结合了2个圆球以及3个自由度，使其可根据用户选择自组装成各种不同的家具。 Roombot 原本的用途是作为确认模块化机器人利用可伸缩夹实现不同任务的测试平台。 “Roombot 是有点疯狂的计划──我们一向喜欢用模块化机器人的概念。这次我们利用小型机器人模块组装出可随时间改变形状与功能、甚至打造出可移动的自动家具，”EPFL BIOROB总监Auke Ijspeert表示，“例如，它可组装出在环境中自在移动的凳，而当碰到其他凳子后即可共组成长板凳。接着，几张长板凳还可能变成桌子等等。”

EPFL BIOROB总监Auke Ijspeert展示活动的Roombots原型，能与其他Roombots相互拼装成可变形家具。
Source：EPFLOJ0esmc

最终，Ijspeert希望打造出一系列的 Roombot 以及其他被动组件，例如桌面以及房间隔板，让 Roombot 可重新组装成一间卧室或一间会议室等。每一个Roombot中都配置了电池、马达以及无线连接，使其可传达指令，以便重新组装成新的配置。 “所以整个想法是让家具可因应人的需求而完全改变功能，”Ijspeert说。 每个 Roombot 都由4个约22cm的半圆球面组成，中央配置三款马达。任一个Roombot都能以4个半球面连结到其他Roombot，每个球面配备可伸缩夹。这些夹具 可连接到被动组件，如桌面、墙壁或地板或甚至松开。EPFL并计划开发一系列主动与被动组件来打造出范围更广泛的变形家具种类。

可伸缩夹让Roombot自行组装成为不同形状的家具部份。
Source：EPFLOJ0esmc

本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：让人们可用机器人来创造自己想用的器具

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{pagination} “我们希望 Roombot 适合广泛的应用，但我们认为其中最重要的一项应用是辅助技术。因而够有助于老年人或没办法轻松或自在移动的人。这意味着如果它是一张桌子的话，它就可以直接移动至病人面前，为他带来药物或一杯水，” Ijspeert说，“在全球范围内，我们希望能提供一种像乐高积木一样的方式，让人们可用它来创造自己想用的器具──这就是我的梦想。” EPFL的科学家们正打造可自由移动且自动变形的未来家具 （来源：EPFL） 在BIOROB实验室的学生们已经提出了许多新的用途，例如在建筑物外追踪阳光的花盆、移动式照明以及音响系统等。目前要为其进行编程并不容易，但该实验室正致力于基于平面计算机的系统，让用户只需设计与布局房间，一系列的Roombot就能自动组织起来实现这项设计。 部分的研究经费是由瑞士国家科学基金会(SNF)国家机器人能力研究中心赞助提供。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Susan Hong 参考英文原文：Roombots Self-Assemble into Furniture，by R. Colin Johnson

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• 美日欧机器人的“三国争霸”
• 人工智能机器统治地球，是必然结局还是想太多？
• Pepper重新定义机器人：人形电脑天使心OJ0esmc

{pagination} Roombots Self-Assemble into Furniture R. Colin Johnson PORTLAND, Ore. -- In what the lead researcher calls a "crazy" project conjoins dual round robots with three degrees-of-freedom--called Roombots -- which self-assemble into the type of furniture of your choice. Conceived at the Biorobotics Laboratory (BIOROB) at école polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL -- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne), Roombots serve as a testbed for modular robots that use retractable grippers to join together for different tasks. "The Roombots project is a bit of a crazy project where we like to use the concept of modular robotics -- little robotic modules -- that we use to make adaptive furniture that changes its shape and functionality over time and can even move," said Auke Ijspeert, head of the Biorobotics Laboratory (BIOROB) at EPFL in a video (below)." For instance, it could make stools that can move around in the environment, where it meets another stool and makes a bench. And the bench might later become a table." EPFL head of its Biorobotics Laboratory, Auke Ijspeert, shows the mobile Roombot, which fits together with other pieces to make adaptive furniture. (Source: EPFL) Eventually Ijspeert hopes to create a whole family of Roombots and other passive components, such as table tops and room dividers, that enable Roombots to reassemble into anything from a bedroom to a conference room. Inside each Roombot are batteries, motors and a wireless connection so they may communicate directives to reassemble into new configurations. "So the whole idea is to have furniture that changes functionality completely for the needs of the person," said Ijspeert. Every Roombot consists of four half spheres about 22 centimeters (8.7 inches) long permanently conjoined at the center with three motors inside. Any Roombot can link to any other Roombot at any of four locations, each equipped with grippers on the flattened sides of each sphere. Grippers can attach to passive components -- like a table top, walls or floors -- or retract to let go. EPFL plans a whole family of active and passive components to create a whole range of adaptive furniture types. Retractable grippers allow Roombots to self-assemble into different shaped furniture pieces. (Source: EPFL) "We hope that Roombots will be used for a whole range of applications, but one of the main ones we have in mind is assistive technologies. So for an elderly person or one who cannot move easily it helps the person. That means if it's a table it can approach the person to bring medicine or a glass of water," said Ijspeert. "Globally what we hope to provide is a kind of Lego block that people can use to invent their own use -- that would be my dream -- that people like maybe artists or designers find their own uses and applications." école polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL--Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) scientists are creating futuristic furniture that can move around and autonomously change its shape. This innovation may prove useful to support disabled individuals. (Source: EPF) Students in the BIOROB lab have already come up with many novel uses, such as flowerpots that follow the sun around the outside of a building, mobile lighting and sound systems that follow their users. Today programming them is difficult, but the lab is working on a tablet-based system where you merely design the layout of the room and an army of Roombots self-organize to realize the design. Partial funding was provided by the National Centre for Competence in Research Robotics at the the Swiss National Science Foundation (Lausanne Switzerland).