Modular robots boost reliability through shared power and sensors

Researchers at EPFL’s Reconfigurable Robotics Laboratory (RRL), led by Jamie Paik, have developed a modular robot system that enhances reliability by sharing critical resources—power, sensors, and communication—across all its modules. Unlike traditional modular robots, where adding more units increases the risk of failure, this new approach, termed hyper-redundancy, allows the robot to continue functioning even if one or more modules fail. In experiments with the four-module Mori3 robot, disabling the central module’s power and communication did not stop the robot; neighboring modules compensated by sharing resources, enabling continued operation over complex terrain. Inspired by natural systems such as bird flocking and cellular nutrient transport, the shared-resource design reverses the typical reliability decline seen with increasing modularity. By collectively sharing all critical resources rather than just one or two, the system can effectively “revive” malfunctioning modules and maintain full functionality. This breakthrough resolves the traditional trade-off between adaptability and reliability in modular robotics. The