Magnetically Assembled Electronic Digital Materials

Abstract

The concept of digital materials at the boundary of electric circuits and miniature robotics is studied. The main objective is to develop an experimental framework for the automatic assembly of basic electric circuits from the elementary modules. The framework is demonstrated on tiny modules, so-called bits, which take advantage of magnetic actuation and connection, both electrically and mechanically. The concept has potential application in small-scale robotics, especially for modular reconfigurable and versatile insect-scale robots, which can be used as elementary parts of complex reconfigurable machines.