We have different robots for different tasks. The geometry of the robot depends upon the task assigned to the robot and the working environment in which robot operates. For example, generally in industry, robots in form of manipulator is required to assemble the parts, mobile platform is required for surveillance an area, mobile robot with manipulator is required to make a coffee and serve to you. A robot designed for a single task has fixed architecture and that robot will perform the single task very well but perform poorly on different task in different environment. So It sounds very exciting that – One Robot for Every Task!
Prof Daniela Rus, the Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT proposed two ideas to make ‘one robot for every task’ in ICRA-2015 talk.
- Make Modular Robot Using Universal Modules
- Make Custom Robots Very Fast
Make Modular Robot Using Universal Modules
First idea is to modularize the robots. In other word, make a universal particle that can be composed many different ways to create many different robot shapes very fast. So objective is to design self-assembling and self-configuring robot systems. Rus and her team made modular robots called “M – Block Robot” with the ability of changing their geometry according to the task. Here M stands for Magnet because the modules can connect each other through magnet; Momentum because inside the module there is a wheel that spins very fast and when braked, it imparts its angular momentum to the cube to move forward; M also stands for Magic because these cubes have no external moving parts but still they’re able to climb over and around one another, leap through the air, roll across the ground, and even move while suspended upside down from metallic surfaces. The pivoting direction for cube can be control by supervised motion of wheel in X, Y and Z direction.
Sticking the Landing:
On each edge of a cube are two cylindrical magnets, mounted like rolling pins. When two cubes approach each other, the magnets naturally rotate, so that north poles align with south, and vice versa. Any face of any cube can thus attach to any face of any other.
The cubes’ edges are also beveled, so when two cubes are face to face, there’s a slight gap between their magnets. When one cube begins to flip on top of another, the bevels, and thus the magnets, touch. The connection between the cubes becomes much stronger, anchoring the pivot. On each face of a cube are four more pairs of smaller magnets, arranged symmetrically, which help snap a moving cube into place when it lands on top of another.
(Video: Self assembly of M- Block Robots – MIT)
Make Custom Robots Very Fast
The second idea to make universal robot is ‘make the custom robot very fast’. In other words try to create a robot compiler that could really enable the pervasive robotics.

Current solution to the robot compiler is data driven approach. The system has three components shown in fig 2. First component is the database of all existing designs. The database is extensible, every time you create a new design it gets added to the database. The second component is the interactive modeling component that allow the user to create 3D design models and once the fabrication files get created it can be send to rapid prototyping machines for real physical model fabrication. Here the fabrication cost and time are still challenging but in near future with the advancement in fabrication technology it could be achievable more easily.
Reference: Prof Daniela Rus talk at ICRA-2015