Robotics
Like many, I got involved with robotics when hobbyist platforms like the MIT Handyboard, and later the Arduino, made prototyping electronics much easier (though see my early experiment with a robot marionette). We’ve built and experimented with several robot construction kits, including roBlocks (commercialized as Cubelets); we’ve developed techniques for making DIY paper robots and adding sensor and actuators to low-cost materials for various purposes, and, in the vein of programmable matter, we’ve looked into building self-configuring robots and speculated on how people might interact with them.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/algorhythm.png)
Algo.Rhythm
2012 A tangible computational drum kit with programmable behaviors.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/interactions_architectural_robotics.png)
Architectural Robotics
2012 ACM Interactions article on the inevitable embedding of robotics in built environments.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/choreobots.jpg)
Choreobots
2012 Internally illuminated modular forms that physically deform in response to changes in ambient sound.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/crafting_percussion_thumb.jpg)
Crafting Mechatronic Percussion
2015 Cardboard mechanical components and a custom printed circuit board to build computational percussive instruments with everyday materials.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/cube_v3-838x1024.jpg)
Cube Robots
2004, 2009 We describe movement primitives for both orthogonal and convex corner transitions with prismatic cube modules.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/cube-in-thumb.png)
Cube-In
2015 A kit to learn fundamental physical computing concepts.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/easigami_config1-1024x766.jpg)
Easigami
2009 A reconfigurable system of thin flat polygon pieces connected by electronically instrumented hinges.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/giffi.png)
Giffi: Gift For Future Inventors
2012 A computationally enhanced construction kit enables children to build kinetic forms through purposeful play and discovery.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/graphmaster.png)
Graphmaster
2009 A computationally enhanced construction kit to elucidate fundamentals of graph theory and to provide a platform for experimenting with graphs.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/human_hive_-682x1024.jpg)
Human Hive
2009 Participants to join a “swarm” to construct hive-like structures from cardboard building blocks using pre-defined rulesets.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/table_expanding-1024x735.png)
Hyperforms: Self-Reconfiguring Materials
2011 Design of, and interaction with, programmable matter.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/junk_to_spam_feed-790x1024.png)
Junk Mail to Spam Converter
2004 Scan, mail, and shred your junk mail.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/kitsch-dis-2.jpg)
Kitsch Instrument
2015 Modular tangible user interface system for creating music with everyday objects.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/foldmecha11.png)
Paper Mechatronics
2015 A novel interdisciplinary design medium enabled by recent advances in craft technologies.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/paper-robots.jpg)
Paper Robots
2010 Small paper interactive objects use shape-memory wire for actuation, gold leaf printed circuits, embedded microchips for control, and paper shells for form and structure.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/posey1.jpg)
Posey & Escape Machine
2008, 2009 A physical construction kit instrumented to capture assembly and configuration information and convey it to a host computer.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/roblocks.jpg)
roBlocks / Cubelets
2006-2014 A tangible concurrent programming environment encapsulates sensory, kinetic, and computational behavior in modular building blocks that snap together to build robots.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/erstwhile_agent1.png)
Self-Designing Systems
2009 The roBlocks reconfigurable robot construction kit and Erstwhile Agent, an evolutionary design system.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/balloons_sensors2.png)
Sensors in the Sky
2011 Large, glowing balloons change color based on attached air quality sensors; a DIY kit includes a printed circuit board, electronic parts and instructions for building the air quality balloons.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/topaoko_panels.jpg)
Topaoko
2010 An interactive hardboard based embedded circuit construction kit.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/ubidrums.png)
Ubiquitous Drums
2010 DIY kit for playing midi-drums on your pants leg.
![](http://mdgross.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/wallbots.png)
Wallbots
2010 Autonomous, wall-crawling robots for public expression on a wide range of surfaces and hard-to- reach places.