Claytronics Demo: A Novel Latching Mechanism for Macroscale Robots

Contents

One of the challenges in implementing modular robotics is an efficient robust latching mechanism. We show a latch based on electrostatic adhesion. The latch is self-aligning, requires only a small battery, quickly engages and disengages, and can hold approximately 0.5 Newtons per square centimeter of latch area. In this demonstration we use the latch to join two prototype cubic robots, each of which is 30 centimeters on a side.