Why Modularity is a big deal in Robotics and Automation

Modularity is a new buzz word in robotics and Virtual Reality circles that represent a future design style for improving self-maintenance and reliability of products as well as reducing the total cost of ownership.

Modularity I’ve recently seen become a key feature in enabling the user to “swap in and out” faulty parts rather than having to call for support or an engineer.

Modularity also helps with the idea of the Wearable or a mobile device as being a “platform” that you just plug in functions that you need for a specific job. For example of you want a powerful camera or a new strap you just swap it in and out rather than buying a new product. This means that it can also redefine the human body of a robot as a “platform” on which you attach and detach devices and functions dynamically as a reconfigurable service.

The famous google modular phone that was recently stopped was such a case in the consumer world but seemed to be too complex for the device to be truly differentiating from a one-size-fits all-in-one phone.

The analogy can be extended to many things as the Internet of Things starts to seek devices that might be able to not just work in a portable modular way but also interoperate with other Things, the fridge talks to your watch and the watch talks to your room lights and so on.

This is the idea behind immersive environments and I see modularity as a key step to enabling “nested modular architectures” that drive this IoT capability.

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