Arm-Z: an extremely modular hyper-redundant low-cost manipulator

Extremely Modular System (EMS) is a novel approach to design of architectural & engineering forms & structures introduced by the applicant a few years ago EMSs are multidisciplinary and gradually gain attention in various fields of research: architecture, civil & space engineering, structural mechanics & computer science. Advantages of all EMSs: economization (mass-production) robustness (modules which failed can be replaced, also if some fail system can perform certain tasks). Disadvantages: their assembly and control are non-intuitive and difficult. i.e. combining non-trivial congruent units to form meaningful structures or their kinematic actions are computationally expensive. However, due to availability of modern computational power, proposed here approach is rational & competitive. Arm-Z is composed of congruent modules each having one degree of freedom (1-DOF) – a relative twist. Simple changes of these twists result in emerging behavior of the entire Arm-Z allowing it to perform complex movements The relative twists can be continuous or discrete. For more data - see the source web page: http://arm-z.com