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Credit: Barobo Inc.

Commercial robots are usually built for specific applications. Modular robots are different kinds of robots. Similar to Lego, iMobot is designed as a building block. However, unlike Lego, a single iMobot module is a fully functional robot with four controllable degrees of freedom. iMobot can roll, crawl, and creep.iMobot in camera platform mode

"UC Davis is proud of its leadership in engineering inventions such as this modular robot technology. We are very pleased to have partnered with the company founded by two inventors to take this technology to market to provide innovative robotic platform for various applications," said David McGee, executive director of UC Davis InnovationAccess, which manages intellectual property and licensing issues on behalf of the university.

"Although modular robot can move on its own, the greatest advantage of modular systems is their high reconfigurability. Multiple identical modules can be assembled manually or self-assembled to form different configurations for different tasks. The potential of intelligent modular robot is enormous, " said Harry H. Cheng, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis and Director of the Integration Engineering Laboratory.

"Robots currently on the market are not flexible enough to be used for a wide range of applications, which is where this new modular robot technology makes things possible," said Graham Ryland, President of Barobo, Inc.

A standardized robot platform for teaching and research has tremendous potential to reduce the time to prototype robotic systems. A great deal of time and energy are spent working on the mechanical and electrical robot infrastructure instead of focusing on cutting edge research.

Ryland and Cheng developed the iMobot technology while Ryland was studying for his master's degree in mechanical engineering and conducting research in Cheng's Integration Engineering Laboratory at UC Davis. Cheng and Ryland founded Barobo, Inc. to commercialize the iMobot technology they developed while Ryland was studying for his master's degree in mechanical engineering and conducting research in Cheng's Integration Engineering Laboratory. Barobo Inc. recently received a National Science Foundation grant to scale up the iMobot robot platform for use in research and teaching at colleges and universities. Barobo Inc. is currently selling the iMobot for colleges and universities to use in a classroom/lab environment.

Contacts and sources:
Andy Fell
University of California – Davis

About the Integration Engineering Laboratory

The Integration Engineering Laboratory (IEL) at UC Davis was created in 1992 in response to a growing need for cross-disciplinary research and education at the integration system level. The lab conducts multidisciplinary research on robotics and information technology at the integrated system level, with the recent study focused on fundamental issues of adaptive and reconfigurable systems. For more information: http://iel.ucdavis.edu.

About UC Davis InnovationAccess

UC Davis InnovationAccess is a unit of the UC Davis Office of Research responsible for intellectual property matters including patenting, licensing and starting up companies. InnovationAccess is a catalyst for the creation of partnerships that advance, for public benefit, the dissemination, utilization, and commercialization of discoveries made in research at UC Davis. InnovationAccess works in close collaboration with UC Davis researchers to identify and protect discoveries that have value for commercialization, and facilitates the development of UC Davis discoveries through new businesses created by entrepreneurs or through existing businesses, creating novel products that benefit the public, and contributing to regional economic development. For more information: http://www.innovationaccess.ucdavis.edu.

About Barobo, Inc.

Barobo, Inc. is a Delaware corporation headquartered in West Sacramento, Calif. Barobo is a commercial spinoff of UC Davis and founded by Harry H. Cheng and Graham Ryland. Barobo was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to commercialize its modular robot technology. The company develops affordable, adaptable, reconfigurable, and reprogrammable modular robots for research and education applications. For more information: http://www.barobo.com.