Fig. 1: The Kilobot Soft Robot comprises a group of fully autonomous Kilobot modules that are arranged in a square lattice configuration and mechanically coupled via elastic links.
From: Coherent movement of error-prone individuals through mechanical coupling
a A 7 × 7 Kilobot Soft Robot composed of 49 modules (colours indicate status of battery) connected by 84 transparent springs (see Fig. S1 for a graphically enhanced photo highlighting the springs). b All modules are initially orientated in a common direction (indicated by red arrows). Each module can broadcast messages to the other modules within its Moore neighbourhood (e.g. discs indicated as magenta for the shaded one) and estimate the distance from neighbours. All modules have unique IDs (see labels). c Each module monitors for local deformations using a combination of distance and angle estimates. If residing on the left or right boundaries (P2 and P4; in blue), a module computes an angle perpendicular to the motion direction, whereas at the head (P1), interior (P3) or tail (P5), it computes angle(s) parallel to it.
