Molecubes are a collection of

modular robot Modular self-reconfiguring robotic systems or self-reconfigurable modular robots are autonomous kinematic machines with variable morphology. Beyond conventional actuation, sensing and control typically found in fixed-morphology robots, self-reconf ...

s created by Hod Lipson and

Victor Zykov The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. A molecube is made of two rotatable halves, one with the microprocessor which represents the intelligence behind the unit, and the other with a motor for rotating the joint. A group of the cubes can be connected into a variety of shapes. A robot constructed entirely of molecubes would be able to repair itself using extra cubes, and to create a copy of itself using the same number of cubes.Cornell News Service: "Simple but seminal: Cornell researchers build a robot that can reproduce"
Archived Physical self-reproduction of both a three- and a four-module robot was demonstrated.Zykov, V., Mytilinaios, E., Adams, B. & Lipson, H. "Self-reproducing machines". Nature 435, 163–164 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/435163a Subsequent open-source development, with support from

Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...

and Festo,Festo: A programmable robot system https://www.festo.com/rep/en_corp/assets/pdf/Molecubes_en.pdf reduced size and weight of the molecubes.V. Zykov, A. Chan, and H. Lipson, “Molecbues: An open-source modular robotic kit” in IROS-2007 Self-Reconfigurable Robotics Workshop, (2007). http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.375.5814&rep=rep1&type=pdf Additional molecube types were produced including: hinges, grippers, batteries, wheels, cameras and more.Zykov, Victor, W. Phelps, Nicolas Lassabe, and Hod Lipson. "Molecubes extended: Diversifying capabilities of open-source modular robotics" In IROS-2008 Self-Reconfigurable Robotics Workshop, pp. 22-26. (2008). http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.140.4555&rep=rep1&type=pdf

References

{{Reflist

External links

* Youtube video
Self-replicating blocks from Cornell University
* Youtube video
Festo - Molecubes
* Creative Machines Lab page

* GitHub repository
Molecubes - Blueprints, source code and circuit schematics
* molecubes.org website
Detailed build materials and instructions
Archived Modular design Open-source robots Multi-robot systems Self-replicating machines

See also

References

External links