An Easy-to-Build Modular Robot Implementation of Chain-Based Physical Transformation for STEM Education

The physically realizable transformation between multiple 3D objects has attracted considerable attention recently since it has numerous potential applications in a variety of industries. In this paper, we presented EasySRRobot, a low-cost, easy-to-build self-reconfigurable modular robot, to realize the automatic transformation across different configurations, and overcomes the limitation of existing transformation methods requiring manual involvement. All on-board components in EasySRRobot are off-the-shelf and all support structures and shells are 3D printed, so that any novice users can make it at home. In addition, an algorithm to automatically find an optimal design for the interior structure was proposed, and the result has been demonstrated by comparing with another two feasible designs. Thirty modules were fabricated with the aid of 3D printing and the motions of two configurations (snake and wheel) were realized, which shows the working ability and effectiveness of the proposed EasySRRobot. We further explored the effect of EasySRRobot on spatial ability, a skill that is crucial for STEM education. The results indicated that interacting with EasySRRobot can effectively improve the performance of the transformation task, suggesting that it might improve mental rotation skills and other aspects of spatial ability.