Enhanced robotic body extension with modular units

The adaptation of robots to changing tasks has been explored in modular self-reconfigurable robot research, where the robot structure is altered by adapting the connectivity of its constituent modules. As these modules are generally complex and large, an upper bound is imposed on the resolution of the built structures. Inspired by growth of plants or animals, robotic body extension (RBE) based on hot melt adhesives allows a robot to additively fabricate and assemble tools, and integrate them into its own body. This enables the robot to achieve tasks which it could not achieve otherwise. The RBE tools are constructed from hot melt adhesives and therefore generally small and only passive. In this paper, we seek to show physical extension of a robotic system in the order of magnitude of the robot, with actuation of integrated body parts, while maintaining the ability of RBE to construct parts with high resolution. Therefore, we present an enhancement of RBE based on hot melt adhesives with modular units, combining the flexibility of RBE with the advantages of simple modular units. We explain the concept of this new approach and demonstrate with two simple unit types, one fully passive and the other containing a single motor, how the physical range of a robot arm can be extended and additional actuation can be added to the robot body. © 2012 IEEE.