"The company's technology is based on research by Ekblaw, who founded the Space Exploration Initiative at MIT Media Lab in 2016, and led development of a self-assembling tile technology called Project TESSERAE. She has already completed a couple of tests with NASA in space, and another larger demonstration with 32 dinner plate-sized tiles is planned for next year on board the International Space Station. The new company seeks to commercialize Ekblaw's work."
"The tiles are fully autonomous, with their own batteries and edge processor, and use swarm robotics software and electromagnetic control to self-assemble and self-correct. The technology is intended to be scalable to very large systems. This design allows Rendezvous to stack dozens of tiles to fit inside a rocket's payload fairing, which, once in space, can be released to self-configure into a preferred configuration. There is no need to unfurl a large solar array or break a spacecraft into multiple pieces."
Rendezvous Robotics was founded by Frank, Joe Landon, and inventor Ariel Ekblaw to commercialize self-assembling tile technology from MIT Media Lab's Project TESSERAE. Ekblaw completed several NASA tests and plans a 32-tile demonstration on the International Space Station next year. The tiles are fully autonomous with onboard batteries and edge processors, using swarm robotics software and electromagnetic control to self-assemble and self-correct. The system is designed to scale to very large structures and to be stackable inside rocket payload fairings for in-space release and autonomous configuration, avoiding manual assembly, robotic-arm choreography, or complex folding mechanisms. An agreement with Starcloud aims to tailor tile demonstrations for large solar arrays and radiators to support edge cloud computing.
Read at Ars Technica
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