Telecubes is a cubic module that has six prismatic degrees of freedom whose sides can expand more than twice its original length and has the ability to magnetically (de)attach to other modules. Many of these modules can be connected together to form a modular self-reconfigurable robot. The paper presents the intended functions, discusses the physical requirements of the modules and describes two key mechanical components: a compact telescoping linear actuator and a switching permanent magnet device.

We present a complete, local, and parallel reconfiguration algorithm for metamorphic robots made up of Telecvbes, six degree of freedom cube shaped modules currently being developed at PARC. We show that by using 2 x 2~2 meta-modules we can achieve completeness of reconfiguration space using only local rules. Furthermore, this reconfiguration can be done in place and massively in parallel with many simultaneous module movements. Finally we present a loose quadratic upper bound on the total number of module movements required by the algorithm.

Drastic reduction in nickel oxide (NiO) film resistivity and ionization potential is observed when subjected to ultraviolet (UV)/ozone (O) treatment. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy suggests that UV/O treatment changes the film stoichiometry by introducing Ni vacancy defects. Oxygen-rich NiO having Ni vacancy defects behaves as a p-type semiconductor. Therefore, in this work, a simple and effective technique to introduce doping in NiO is shown. Angle-resolved XPS reveals that the effect of UV/O treatment does not only alter the film surface property but also introduces oxygen-rich stoichiometry throughout the depth of the film. Finally, simple metal/interlayer/semiconductor (MIS) contacts are fabricated on p-type Si using NiO as the interlayer and different metals. Significant barrier height reduction is observed with respect to the control sample following UV/O treatment, which is in agreement with the observed reduction in film resistivity. From an energy band diagram point of view, the introduction of the UV/O treatment changes the defect state distribution, resulting in a change in the pinning of the Fermi level. Therefore, this work also shows that the Fermi level pinning property of NiO can be controlled using UV/O treatment.

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The first micromachined bimorph organic ciliary array with on-chip CMOS circuitry is presented. This ciliary array is composed of an 8 2 8 array of cells each having four orthogonally oriented actuators in an overall die size of 9.4 2 9.4 mm. The polyimide-based actuators were fabricated directly above the selection and drive circuitry. Selection and activation of actuators in this array shows that integration was successful. The array was programmed to do simple linear and diagonal translations and squeeze-, centering-, and rotating-field manipulations. All three tasks were demonstrated using silicon pieces of various shapes and either 0.55 mm or 0.10 mm thick.[365]