Robotics Technology Center

NASA’s Superbot Is A “Real Transformer”

Remember the "Transformers" fictitious characters like Megatron and Optimus Prime? They have the abilities to quickly transform into a ten-wheeler truck or a trailer. Well, this motion picture has finally come to the real world. "Real transformers" are actually here.

NASA's Superbot is the "real transformer". It was developed out of NASA's intention to build a "shape-shifting" robot from modulated blocks, able to self-assemble and self-repair themselves in space. These modules work interdependently, and can communicate with each other simultaneously in order to organize themselves. However, these modules do not have the ability to adapt to their environment, and to decide when and where to transform, is yet to be developed.

According to Wei-Min Shen, director of the Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory at the University of Southern California, creator of Superbot, superbot has managed to form different combinations with two, four or six legs, move like a robotic snake using sidewinding motion, and even inch along like a caterpillar. Six of its modules can form a rolling track, and some combinations can even shimmy up ropes. (see pictures below)

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