I-BLOCKS Technology is an innovative concept of building blocks, which allows users to manipulate conceptual structures, compose atomic actions and emerging behaviors, while building physical constructions. The tool consists of a number of ‘intelligent’ building blocks (I-BLOCKS ) that can be manipulated to create both physical functional and conceptual structures. The focus on building both physical and functional structures with the I-BLOCKS also lead to the possibility of investigating the concept of ‘programming by building’, in which Programming of a specific behaviour simply consists of building physical structures known to express that specific behaviour. This technology was developed to allow everyday users to develop functionality of artefacts, avoiding to split the process of artefact development into two processes of physical creation (e.g. physical construction of a robot) and functional creation (e.g. programming of the robot). Furthermore, this technology avoids the users to learn syntax and semantics of a programming language necessary to program the pre-built physical structures of the robot. This may results in a long and tedious process. Hence, such an approach will exclude most everyday users from becoming creative with the new technology. The housing of the I-BLOCKS takes the form of LEGO DUPLO bricks, each one containing electronics, and including the microprocessor (the PIC16F876 40pin 8 bit CMOS Flash microcontroller).

Each I-BLOCK has four communication channels, two on the bottom and two on top of each brick. So, when attached together, I-BLOCKS communicate with each other over the two-way serial communication channels. The physical processing structures can therefore be built in two and three dimensions. Energy Power from a 9V battery building block is transported through the construction of IBLOCKS.

By attaching a number of basic building blocks together, the user may construct an artifact that can both perceive input, process, and produce output. The behavior of an IBLOCKS structure depends on the physical shape, the processing in the I-BLOCKS and the interaction between the structure and the sensory inputs coming from the surrounding environment. The different role played by these three elements generates diverse outcome in relation to the following flow dimensions.

Action and awareness of the system merge and Concentration on the task at hand. The novelty of I-Blocks relies on the concurrent manipulation of two compositional levels of the robots: physical and behavioural. The conceptual model of the system behaviour stems from the knowledge acquired during the construction of building blocks. For example, the combination of two building blocks determines a specific behaviour resulting from the combination of an input and an output device plus the sensory stimuli coming from the external environment. In doing this, the users construct, negotiate, and update the system representation in relation to the actual and the expected system behaviour. This implies a deep understanding of the role of each block in defining the overall functionality. When this occurs action and awareness of the system merge and users are able to be concentrated and focused on the construction task. The maintenance of this condition is subordinated to the matching between the user conceptual model of the physical and the behavioural construction.

Next >> A Popular Robotic Construction Kit To Teach Children And Adults

Tech Materials (Free)

Robot Behaviors Exploring the T-Maze: Evolving Learning-Like Robot Behaviors using CTRNNs
Humanoid Robotics A Biochemical Subsystem for a Humanoid Robot
Industrial Automation Systems Applying Agents for Engineering of Industrial Automation Systems
Robot Team Cooperation A Descriptive Model of Robot Team and the Dynamic Evolution of Robot Team Cooperation
Kuka Robots For ONU ONU Robotics Technology Center of Excellence, powered by KUKA Robotics Corporation
Augmented reality Annotation System for Robotic Application
Modular Robots Self-Reconfiguration Planning Of Identical Modules
Autonomous robots A New Approach To Robotics
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Calibration of Industrial Robots A Photogrammetric Robot Calibration System Based On Off-The-Shelf Low Cost Hardware Components

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Amazon Books

	Creative Projects with LEGO Mindstorms by Benjamin Erwin Buy new: $20.64 / Used from: $13.00 A good place to start, especially for kids, with Lego Mindstorms
	A Practical Guide to Behavior-Based Robotics by Joe Jones Buy new: $20.67 / Used from: $15.13 Very good for programming not so much behavior as control. Language and controller agnostic