Robot changes skins to change its moves

BOULDER CREEK, Calif. — MIT has invented a robot that swaps out water-soluble, recyclable exoskeletons to perform different tasks by walking, rolling on wheels, gliding, or floating. Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), led the engineering team that developed the robot, dubbed Primer.

Although robots that can change their form or function have been created at larger sizes, building smaller-scale self-reconfiguring robots is difficult, partly because of the size and weight of onboard electronics. The cube-shaped Primer robot is controlled remotely via magnets. Its exoskeletons, or skins, are heat-activated, rectangular plastic sheets that self-fold into different shapes to customize the robot for various tasks. Immersion in water dissolves the exoskeleton after Primer completes the job.

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