Collaborator: Eric Schweikardt

Reconfigurable systems have many benefits over single-purpose machines but there are many obstacles to their widespread implementation. We describe roBlocks, a reconfigurable robotic construction kit, and the Erstwhile Agent, an evolutionary design system and discuss extensions that would enable them to design improvements to themselves, and also their eventual replacements.

2009 Designing Systems to Design Themselves, Schweikardt, E and Gross MD, Workshop on Material Computing and Programmable Reality, Conference on Human Factors (CHI) [pdf]