In the past few years, we have covered plenty of cool modular robots here. HERMITS explores the idea of using hermit crab inspired shells to enhance table-top robots. Researchers in the Tangible Media group at the Media Lab (Ken Nakagaki, Joanne Leong, Jordan L. Tappa, Joao Wilbert, and Hiroshi Ishii) have developed passive attachment modules (mechanical shells) that can convert the motion of robots into interactions.
The above video shows this fascinating concept in action.
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