An open-source multi-robot construction system

We describe a completely open source system for performing experiments in multi-robot construction in laboratory settings. The system consists of robots that are capable of assembling cubic blocks into structures, which can be up to three blocks in height. The building material contains microcontrollers and multi-color light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that can be programmed by the robots using a near-field communication (NFC) interface. This mechanism is implemented to facilitate experiments where the intelligence that coordinates the construction can be embedded not only in the robots but also in the building material. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.