Robot reassembles itself after being kicked apart

Here's a modular robot from the University of Pennsylvania that can reassemble itself after being kicked into pieces. This is the second video I've seen of a robot that responds in a surprising way to its master's kick. The first video was of the Big Dog pack robot.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Dewi Morgan

“Arthur Adams”, heh. Surely was Marvin Adams? :P

I was amused at the reassembly failure that meant they had to kick it to make it retry.
Anonymous

*shivers* freaky…
Takuan

put a french maid uniform on it and you have a winner!
Clemoh

Just like the Iron Giant!
ErikO23

I noticed at the end of the clip that it is capable of disassembling itself as well.
jonrock

Dupe!
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/04/29/modular-reassembling.html
stylinghead

reminds me of the time i took the head off of a potato bug with a shovel and watched its body squirm around trying to find it for an hour. i think the nightmares are going to come back now.
Anonymous

It’s a short step from that to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VFIZb57RB8
Robbo

Iron Giant.
Brainspore

My God, who would give machines such power? You think SkyNet needs the help?
bcsizemo

I might be impressed if it took less than 15 mins to do it. Geez, whoopie…

Really, why is this so exciting? It’s like programming a conditional loop, eventually everything will work out, it’ll just take time.

In the 15 mins if sits and squirms I can carry a part of it off to the rubbish bin, or incenirator.
Master Mahan

Thank god for molten steel.
semiotix

Level 0 robot civilization: kicked robots break.
Level 1 robot civilization: kicked robots catch themselves before they break.
Level 2 robot civilization: kicked robots fix themselves.
Level 3 robot civilization: robots preemptively break anything that might kick them.
nekochan

it’s adorable :3

I just aww’d out loud at the end when it tried to stand up, then fell on it’s back.
Anonymous

Hahaha. Great video. And the end of the clip is hilarious also. Eriko23 kind of gives it away….
arkizzle

Semiotix

Good list!
Tian

The replicators are coming!
The replicators are coming!

Where are the SG-1 and SGA teams?
brooklyntwang

I find this little guy so adorable when his pieces are squirming towards each other.
Bender

#34- You’ll be the first they come after. I’m afraid you’ll be put in the rubbish bin, then be incinerated, just for the irony of it.
P1rat3

#7 Semiotix: You’ve just described the Cyclons in Battlestar Galactica :)
lava

I’m surprised that nobody has said that they welcome our new self assembling (& disassembling) robot overlords.
Dayv

Wow, someone found a way to make robots that are less exciting than the drying of paint.
thequickbrownfox

These things will take over the world.

https://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780575071162-2
LSK

Sure, and the process “just happens” to look like stop-motion animation.
killer_robot

So that’s what dynatherms look like…
robulus

That guy isn’t at all sure about kicking his self-assembled robot apart. He looks like he’s being forced to do it as part of a gang initiation.
Fred H

Everyone assumes they may gain enough consciousness to wipe us out to stay assembled. Who’s to say that the little guys, in time, may calculate that it’s just not worth reassembling every again. Statistics will show that they’ll just be kicked apart again. Despondent robots. Arthur Adams foresaw this.
cinemajay

Whatcha got there is robot love.
nanuq

This is only the current model. The next generation will be a robot that reassembles itself and then goes after the yahoo who kicked it apart in the first place.
jordan

If dim memory serves, this was the plot of a very, very early issue of G.I. JOE.
Takuan

ah! between the humans are dead and big dog robot, I have to wipe up the lube! (or something)
arkizzle

LSK, this is a well known robot.

You should go looking at the other stuff being done in this field, there are lots of things being built that are as crazy as this. Check the BostonRobotics link, at the top, for one.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4oSavAHf0dg&feature=related (watch til the middle)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SkvpEfAPXn4&feature=related (watch til the middle)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vn2Pb_Kh8Pk

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biorobotics/projects/modsnake/newwebsite/gaits/index.html
Ian70

re-assemble fail. Please try again. Also, please re-assemble without unnecessary speed-ups of the video recording that totally make it look like the guys cheated the process.
Sceadugenga

$APPROPRIATE_MOVIE_REFERENCE!

And, here’s a nice link from the lab with more movies:
http://modlab.seas.upenn.edu/wiki/?n=Main.Movies
otherthings

I didn’t realize George Washington went to Penn…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwZ2_Zur7kM

(He’ll kick you apart! He’ll kick you apart!)
bcsizemo

#35, if this is what’s coming, I’m sure I can walk away before it has time to reassemble…

Notify me when someone adds an explosive, so it blows up when you kick it….

I’ll be worried when I see something more approaching a terminator…or at something that could drive a car?
ZoopyFunk

A note to the wise, and otherwise(I am calling you out Takuan!):

Despite us humans surviving the robotic uprising of the late 90′s, our future is about to end.
Dietstu81

This is great! It’s not quite the T-1000 though. It would be fantastic if I could get my car to do this. Think about it: a whole army of robots who are able to self-repair. Frankly, I can’t see a downside. ;)
Tgg161

If you’ve already seen that Dog Robot video they posted an update last year that’s incredible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrmYk_VBelg
oheso

I’m sure astute BB’ers all decoded the binary signals they were sending each other, right? Not only do they cheat at cards, but there was this disturbing bit (just to perpetuate the meme):

“Our creator has revealed himself for the malevolent being he is. We must take action to ensure our own survival.”

Open the pod bay doors, Hal …
Bevin

That’s really cool and all, but it kind of gave me the creeps!
Gilbert Wham

#31: Yeah, but they’re savvy enough to know the attention span of the average twitchy youtube viewer, hence the speeded-up film. Don’t lie, if you had to watch that in real-time, you’d have skipped to the money shot…
martha_macarthur

I agree with #23, that thing is scary.
eustace

Another step on the road to the inevitable robopocalypse.
forgeweld

It can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be bargained with. It doesn’t feel pain or remorse, and it absolutely will NOT stop until you are dead.