Gaia's Delta
Concept of a triangular programmable matter

Gaia's Delta is a concept of a triangular programmable matter. With variable edges of the triangle and electromagnet on the edge which enable it to combine with each other and form up its target shape. Its ultimate goal is to self-form using the most popular STL files, which simplifies the process of generating a model and also able to move by shape shifting.

A Gaia's Delta includes an outer triangle formed up with 3 stretchable rods with each rod able to stretch from length a~ka(k<2).
Each rod has electromagnet and connectors to exchange signal and power.

The central part is a self-propelled cart; there are three casters so that it can be free to move and rotate on the ground and combine with each other, therefore by changing the edge so that it can fold into the target shape.
The self-propelled cart contains a microcontroller, environmental sensors, power systems (lithium and solar), so that when they are scattered in the natural environment, they know their place or relative position, and therefore communicate with nearby companions to help each other.

The goal of it is to make it smaller than 3 cm, some of its actuators will be piezo motors.

An example: Pyramid
Imagine that we want to create a Pyramid shape with 6 Gaia's Delta labeled A to F.

Step 1:
Both triangle A and B deform to right triangles and combine its longest edge together to form up the bottom square.

Step 2:
Triangle C, D, E, F come to join the main body.

Step 3:
All triangles deform to 30/30/120 to let CD and EF combine to each other.

Step 4:
Triangle A and B shift back to right triangles while CDEF shift to deltoids. At the moment, CD/EF fold up to space and ED/FC combine to each other.
The result turns out to be a pyramid formed up with Gaia's Deltas.

The concept of Gaia's Delta came from several magnetic puzzles:

Related Previous Works:

Internal Mechanism for Cube Puzzles

Self Combination Robot