I-Corps: A modular toolkit for rapid prototyping of capsule robots

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

From robotic kits to modular electronic learning tools for sale on the market, none of them offers miniature device building blocks. This I-Corps team proposes a modular kit aiming to provide the users with a tool to shorten capsule robot design and development time. It is similar to constructional robotic kits and modular electronic learning tools currently available on the market, but implements each module/device building block at the centimeter scale. The proposed toolkit is expected to have a significant potential for commercialization in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, where it can provide an engaging learning-by-doing experience to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. This I-Corps team has developed the STORM Lab Modular Architecture for Capsules (SMAC). As a modular kit for capsule robots, SMAC offers more than just rapid prototyping. It comes with a software environment as a medium for everyone to study, understand, and adapt its inherent open source knowledge into creative small-scale robots. Creating a miniature device with SMAC is as easy as combining snap-on hardware modules, while the software keeps track of any changes in the background and stays in sync. This feature is the key element of SMAC's modular kit. It drastically reduces the time required for hardware reconfiguration and software rework. The commercial impact of SMAC may be comparable to the National Instruments Data Acquisition hardware that has become the de facto standard of signal and data acquisition, beyond the traditional analog hardware prototyping.