RoFICoM xe2x80x93 First OpenHardware Connector for Metamorphic Robots We present RoFICoM, a new retractable connection device that allows for mechanical, electric, and data communication connection between separable robotic modules. The device is intentionally designed to be used in latticetype metamorphic robots, however, its applicability is much wider. The main novelty of our solution lies primarily in a new unique flat design and spatial compactness of the connector. With a flat connector, much more space is left for the body of a robotic module in the structure. Moreover, the connector is also fully selfcontained device with well defined mechanical, electrical and data interfaces, hence it can be easily embedded in various robotic solutions. Our RoFICoM connector is easy to produce, it is openhardware and free for noncommercial use. In the paper, we give construction details and report on a couple of experiments we performed to demonstrate key features of the connection achieved with two RoFICoM devices.

FPGAROS: Methodology to Augment the Robot Operating System with FPGA Designs Robotic applications are becoming more complex every day because they rely on multiple heterogeneous sensors and actuators, increasing the computational demand. Energy efficiency becomes an important factor to consider as battery powered robots have limited energy budget. Algorithms have to be carefully implemented to achieve the expected performance. Consequently, there is a need to increase performances of embedded devices for robotics in terms of computational power and energy efficiency. This work presents a methodology to design an architecture for custom embedded hardware applications implemented in Field Programmable Gate Arrays to be compatible with the mainstream Robot Operating System (ROS). Therefore, highly computational algorithms can be implemented as a dedicated hardware module to increase the processing power of any heterogeneous robotic system. A modular design is foreseen to ease the adaptability to changes in the system. A generic interface for all modules is chosen leading to fully customizable messages to exchange data internally or with other parts of the distributed systems.