Clay for the Creative Mind: Hands-On Robot Shaping Using Truss Links

作者：Philippe Martin Wyder, Judah Goldfeder, Quinn A. Booth, Meiqi Zhao, Gaurav H. Patel, Jiong Lin, Allen Roush, Hod Lipson · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1145/3803784.3816836 · 研究领域：Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence、Interactive and Immersive Displays、Tactile and Sensory Interactions

Truss Links are a modular robot platform originally developed for studying Robot Metabolism, the ability for machines to grow, repair, and intelligently adapt by integrating components from their environment or other robots. Here, we investigate whether Truss Links can be more than robots that build themselves: can they serve as a creative medium accessible to non-experts? In this paper, we present a preliminary research-through-design exploration of Truss Links as digital building blocks for the physical world. We demonstrate how Truss Links can be used to animate text, animate two- and three-dimensional shapes, form kinetic sculptures, and hand-build a delta pick-and-place robot. We discuss what this exploration reveals about the design properties that can make a research-grade robotic platform accessible as a creative medium.