We live in the century of robotics, a time when humankind intensively looks for as many ways as possible to eliminate everyday duties, for a better life. And Roombots is the perfect invention for all you lazybones out there that would like to see their furniture moving and shaping on its own.
If you’d be at the “truth or dare” game and somebody would ask you how lazy you can get, Roombots would probably be a good answer. Just imagine you could get your stag studio to clean itself after your last tequila party! That is what the project funded by the Swiss NCCR (The National Centre of Competence in Research) in Robotics explores. They work at the design and control of modular robots.
We’re talking about robots made of multiple simple modules designed to attach and detach to each other. It’s just furniture that moves, self-assembles and self-reconfigures. Imagine your girlfriend’s parents are coming over to dinner and you only have about 3 minutes to change the bar in a fancy table. Roombots would definitely help you, won’t it?
Now, these self-reconfiguring modular robots allow the creation of arbitrary and changing structures depending on the task they receive. According to its creators, compared to “monolithic” robots, modular robots offer an higher versatility and robustness against failure, as well as the possibility of self-reconfiguration. Even better, when you need the space, the group of modules can create a static box or maybe a bookcase so you won't even notice it exists.
But to be honest with you, the main goal that the creators are looking to achieve is providing assistance to the elderly. The team designing the Roombots have received a grant that will allow them, starting September 2014, to design multifunctional and assistive robotic furniture that can interact with users, help them recover from a fall, monitor their health and other assistance type of activity.
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