In order to keep costs low while maximizing utility, engineers are getting creative with their potential robotic cargo. As governments and private companies set their sights returning to the moon and,eventually, establishing a human presence on Mars, space-friendly robots are all the more crucial. Taking inspiration from biological swarm behaviors and geometrical patterns, researchers at Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) recently showcased Mori3, a new line of shapeshifting, 2D triangular robots capable of combining to form virtually any 3D shape.
As detailed in a paper published on Monday with Nature Machine Intelligence, the team’s modular, origami-like Mori3 machines “can be assembled and disassembled at will depending on the environment and task at hand,” Jamie Paik, the paper’s co-author and director of EPFL’s aptly-named Reconfigurable Robotics Lab, said in a statement.
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