Strength analysis of miniature folded right angle tetrahedron chain Programmable Matter

Miniaturization of Programmable Matter is a major challenge. Much of the difficulty stems from size and power requirements of internal actuators. This paper demonstrates that external energy can be used to both move modules and actuate their bonding mechanism. It presents a lattice style Programmable Matter system whose neighbor to neighbor lattice distance is 14mm. Previous work has shown a chain of edge connected right angle tetrahedrons can fold to arbitrary shapes. To form useful shapes such as tools, the chain should be folded to meet the functional requirements of the task such as mechanical strength. This paper also introduces the analysis of the strength of Programmable Matter systems. Module connections are defined by 6DOF stiffness matrices. The paper analyzes the strength of a heterogeneous system with some rigid and some soft connections.