corobos: A Design for Mobile Robots Enabling Cooperative Transitions between Table and Wall Surfaces

TL;DR

Corobos addresses the limited surface-domain of swarm UIs by enabling cooperative table-wall transitions for two-wheeled robots using a passive magnetic-slope attachment. The mechanism combines a push component and a curved slope to rotate a transitioning robot by 90 degrees under assistance from a second robot, leveraging magnetic adhesion to the wall for stability. Empirical validation shows 100% wall-to-table success across attachments and high tabletop-to-wall success for optimized slope shapes (notably $n=1.3$), with sub-second transition times. Fabricated via SLA printing and open-sourced CAD, corobos enables diverse applications including workspace organization, heavy-object delivery, dynamic wall postings, and spatial data displays, demonstrating a practical, multi-surface interaction paradigm for Human-Robot Interaction.

Abstract

Swarm User Interfaces allow dynamic arrangement of user environments through the use of multiple mobile robots, but their operational range is typically confined to a single plane due to constraints imposed by their two-wheel propulsion systems. We present corobos, a proof-of-concept design that enables these robots to cooperatively transition between table (horizontal) and wall (vertical) surfaces seamlessly, without human intervention. Each robot is equipped with a uniquely designed slope structure that facilitates smooth rotation when another robot pushes it toward a target surface. Notably, this design relies solely on passive mechanical elements, eliminating the need for additional active electrical components. We investigated the design parameters of this structure and evaluated its transition success rate through experiments. Furthermore, we demonstrate various application examples to showcase the potential of corobos in enhancing user environments.

Figures (19)

• Figure 1: Basic shape of the attachment. It has two functional components called slope and push.
• Figure 2: Transitioning process of corobos: (A) Table-to-wall transition, (B) Wall-to-table transition.
• Figure 3: Design space of corobos: surface-transitioning swarm robots.
• Figure 4: Parameters for determining the curvature of the slope component: (A) Parameters for computing the required momentum for transitioning. (B) Slope configurations corresponding to each parameter. (C) Required force for rotating the transitioning robot.
• Figure 5: Experimental results of transition time.