ChainFORM: A modular robot

trippy but cool

Ken nakagaki from MIT's tangible Media group has come up with something interesting. A foldable reel of robotic segments that can interact with each other, like a single unit. Something similar to what we saw at the end of the Rajnikanth movie 'robot', where tiny robots connect with one another into forming a giant machine. This is something similar!

The project is an evolved form of an earlier advent called as LineFORM. It was a linear robotic development project which has now lead to this one, called chainFORM. The components have individual LED lights and motors, with several degrees of freedom.

They can detect how many of their partner components are live and work along with them. You can control their movements from the app interface available. It behaves like a cluster of tiny Legos, joined to look like a snake. The robots also seem to recognize external contact, so they can tell where they are being held.

pretty responsive!

The fact that the chainFORM is infinitely expandable, leads to a lot of creative applications for it. It can be used as a tracker not that slithers along the ground, into tight spaces and transimts back a camera feed. The chainFORM can also be used to bring life to inanimate objects like a soft toys. If this thing is coupled with artificial intelligence, the possibilities are beyond limits.

Endless applications!

As of now, it's still pretty much, a demo unit. Ken nakagaki thinks that the chainFORM has vital uses in prototyping a robot skeleton, as the robot can be programmed based on it's variable length.
He predicts that it can find greater use somewhere along the next decade or so.

Interested in smartphones? News, reviews and more at  my website 