Polybots

Has anyone tried making a polybot, or prepared to make a polybot?

I saw this, and looking at the pictures of the plastic bits, it should be possible to print them out on a RepRap.

[www.molecubes.org]

... i was thinking in that direction too and maybe something further to 'foglets', but actually it would be more a toy then really usefull, so i have other projects with higherpriority ...

But when realized and mybe combined with easy crosslinkable XMos XS1-L1-Cores (4 cores in a chip, all parallel processes can run either on one chip or in a crosslinked grid without changes ) ... this would be a great start

Viktor

This makes me think of the tactile behavior of BEAM robots like symets and bristlebots. If the form of a concept such as foglets and those awesome little molecubes are adapted, say, with a tiny microcontroller, this could be great for kids to learn from. We all know its their imaginations that are best.

I see that "obijuan" has designed REPY-1 modules on Thingiverse that can be printed with a RepRap.

Like most modular robots, it appears utterly useless when you have one module by itself,
but sufficiently large numbers connected together can do some pretty cool things.

Since each module does so very little -- controls a relatively slow mechanical motor, does a bit of sensing, does some communication, and forwards messages in both direction -- it seems likely that a relatively small, cheap, single-core microcontroller in each module may be adequate.