The AWE wall: A smart reconfigurable robotic surface

In this paper, we introduce a new robot "wall" surface, featuring a multiple folding panel structure. The wall forms part of AWE, a novel 'Animated Work Environment", which seeks to introduce robotics at the architectural scale to modify environments in real time to the changing needs and moods of their occupants. The panels of the AWE wall will feature embedded IT and adapt to the current movements and tasks of the user. We describe the overall AWE concept and detail the design and construction of the robot surface. Motion planning and control issues are discussed.