Patent ID: 8099859

Claim:
A modular assembly of modular objects for autonomously executing tasks comprising: a modular assembly system utilizing modular object fasteners (MOFs) and MOF-accommodating features of modular objects for facilitating the attachment of a plurality of modular objects to one another to create a modular assembly in any one of a plurality of configurations, the modular assembly system facilitating the detachment of modular objects in an assembly and the reattachment of the same or different modular objects to form a different configuration of the modular assembly or a different modular assembly, an MOF being activatable when object attachment surfaces associated with two modular objects are superimposed and two object attachment points on the object attachment surfaces coincide; a modular object called a platform comprising a frame of interconnected beams and any cross-members attached to the frame, the frame being amenable to the attachment and detachment of cross-members within the frame, beams and cross-members being structural members consisting of one or more parallel flanges and one or more webs normal to the flanges, coplanar exterior surfaces of the flanges of the beams and cross-members constituting object attachment surfaces with object attachment points designated thereon, the web surfaces of the beams and cross-members constituting bus-attachment surfaces; one or more modular objects called modules, a module having at least one object attachment surface with object attachment points designated thereon, the interior surfaces of a module being bus-attachment surfaces, a module being attachable to a platform or to another module when one or more of the object attachment points on an object attachment surface of the module coincide with one or more object attachment points on an object attachment surface of the platform or the other module; a modular bus system for distributing electrical power and electrical signals among a plurality of modular objects in a modular assembly, the modular bus system comprising modular-object bus systems attached to one or more bus-attachment surfaces within each modular object, one or more inter-object bus connectors for electrically connecting the plurality of modular-object bus systems to one another, and one or more intra-object bus connectors for enabling the flow of electrical power and electrical signals between the bus system of a modular object and units within the modular object.