[IROS 2012] Robot Builds Ramp by Randomly Flinging 3,600 Toothpicks

[IROS 2012] Robot Builds Ramp by Randomly Flinging 3,600 Toothpicks via @IEEESpectrum

One way of making a simple robot more capable is to give it the capacity to modify its environment. We've seen this in practice in the last year or two with robots that have the capacity to create tools , build buildings , and even manufacture other robots . This concept can be taken even farther, though, with robots that can construct large structures out of amorphous materials like glue, foam, and toothpicks. Robots are fairly decent at using prefabricated materials to build things , but when you get out into an unstructured environment (whether it’s somewhere like a forest or a city after a major disaster), it doesn't really make sense to bring anything prefabricated, because you have no idea what you’re going to need. What makes more sense is to bring along building materials that can be adapted into whatever you want on-site, which means large amounts of stuff that yo...

Full article: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/watch-thi...