Robot Builds Ramp by Randomly Flinging 3,600 Toothpicks

Paving the way for robots to build with non-fabricated materials building and using algorithmic assembly, this new robot can build a ramp from randomly firing prefabricated sticks (toothpicks) and glue. The self-organizing systems research lab at Harvard is looking to make them more adaptive and autonomous. Their paper, Materials and Mechanisms for Amorphous Robotic Construction: http://tom.ms/T7xu9c was presented at the 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.