Parallelism and adaptability are two distinct architectural design considerations in embedded processors. Multicore processors accelerate application execution on account of their inherent parallelism and run-time reconfiguration capabilities add adaptability during infield deployment. To benefit from both these features, a reconfigurable multiprocessor architecture − QuadroCore has been develo...

Self-reconfigurable robots are designed so that they can change their external shape without human intervention. One general way to achieve such functionality is to build a robot composed of multiple, identical unit modules. If the modules are designed so that they can be assembled into rigid structures, and so that individual units within such structures can be relocated within and about the s...

A three-dimensional, self-reconfigurable structure is proposed. The structure is a fully distributed system composed of many identical 3-D units. Each unit has functions of changing local connection, information processing, and communication among neighborhood units. Groups of units cooperate to change their connection so that the shape of the whole solid structure transforms into arbitrary sha...

Self-reconfiguration is the capability of a system to autonomously switch from one configuration to a better one in response to failure or context change. There is growing demand for software systems able to self-reconfigure, and specifically systems that can fulfill their requirements in dynamic environments. We propose a conceptual architecture that provides systems with selfreconfiguration c...

The advent of cybertechnologies has led to radical paradigm shifts in our social, economic, cultural, and psychological conceptualizations. The paper investigates the advent of cyborgs, indeed our transformation into cyborgs, and the impact of this transformation upon identities and face management, which has an important social value since the late modernism. Cyborg is a designation for the in...

In this paper we examine the problem of dynamic self-reconnguration of a class of modular robotic systems referred to as metamorphic systems. A meta-morphic robotic system is a collection of mechatronic modules, each of which has the ability to connect, disconnect , and climb over adjacent modules. A change in the macroscopic morphology results from the locomo-tion of each module over its neigh...

We discuss a robotic system composed of Crystalline modules. Crystaline modules can aggregate together to form distributed robot systems. Crystalline modules can move relative to each other by expanding and contracting. This actuation mechanism permits automated shape metamorphosis. We describe the crystalline module concept and show the basic motions that enable a crystalline robot system to s...

Some modern Christian notions of ‘self-sacrifice’ and ‘cruciformity’ abstract an ethic self-negation from its larger theological teleological frame. A distinctively Western trajectory has shaped ‘exclusive altruism’ where the interests self other stand in a competitive relationship. Although Paul's letter to Philippians often been cited as prime example such ethic, closer scrutiny reveals narra...

Self-reconfigurable robots can change their shape by rearranging the modules from which they are built. This self-reconfiguration process has proven difficult to control, because it involves control of a distributed system of autonomous, but mechanically coupled modules connected in time-varying ways. In this work we address this control problem and specifically look at how to construct dense c...

In this paper, we apply graph grammars to self-reconfigurable modular robots and present a method to reconfigure arbitrary initial configurations into prespecified target configurations thus connecting the motions of modules to formal assembly rules. We present an approach for centralized reconfiguration planning and decentralized, rule-based reconfiguration execution for three-dimensional modu...