5. Self-repairing Machine
5. Self-repairing Machine
Mechanical Systems are becoming more complex and their maintenance requirements are increasing. It is highly desirable to establish a design scheme for mechanical systems in which they can repair themselves.
A novel design scheme is being studied to realize a self-repairing machine. In our scheme, the machine is made up of identical mechanical units. A unit can be interconnected with other units by an electro-magnetic force, and equipped with a microprocessor to decide its behavior autonomously through local communication. Based on identical software, a group of units can generate different machine configurations by changing its interconnections. If some units become faulty, they are ejected and automatically replaced by spare ones. By using more than ten hardware units, we have successfully demonstrated their self-repair capability. Possible applications include machines used in environments inaccessible to humans, for instance, planetary exploration vehicles or satellite antennae.
