The EMeRGE modular robot, an open platform for quick testing of evolved robot morphologies

Abstract

This work presents the hardware design and implementation of the EMeRGE open modular robot platform. EMeRGE (Easy Modular Embodied Robot Generation) modules are designed to be cheap and easy to build and their hardware is open for anyone to use and modify. Four magnetic connectors enable the quick assembly of different complex robot morphologies like the ones generated by evolutionary robotics experiments. Non-human agents, like robotic manipulators, can also take advantage of the magnetic connectors to assemble and disassemble morphologies.