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A Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robot: Reconfiguration Planning and Experiments

Distributed System Design Research Group, Intelligent Systems Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial, Science and Technology (AIST), 1-2-1 Namiki, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan

Satoshi Matura

Distributed System Design Research Group, Intelligent Systems Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial, Science and Technology (AIST), 1-2-1 Namiki, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan

Akiya Kamimura

Distributed System Design Research Group, Intelligent Systems Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial, Science and Technology (AIST), 1-2-1 Namiki, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan

Kohji Tomita

Distributed System Design Research Group, Intelligent Systems Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial, Science and Technology (AIST), 1-2-1 Namiki, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan

Haruhisa Kurokawa

Distributed System Design Research Group, Intelligent Systems Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial, Science and Technology (AIST), 1-2-1 Namiki, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan

Shigeru Kokaji

Distributed System Design Research Group, Intelligent Systems Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial, Science and Technology (AIST), 1-2-1 Namiki, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan

In this paper we address a reconfiguration planning method for locomotion of a homogeneous modular robotic system and we conduct an experiment to verify that the planned locomotion can be realized by hardware. Our recently developed module is self-reconfigurable. A group of the modules can thus generate various three-dimensional robotic structures and motions. Although the module itself is a simple mechanism, self-reconfiguration planning for locomotion presents a computationally difficult problem due to the many combinatorial possibilities of modular configurations. In this paper, we develop a two-layered planning method for locomotion of a class of regular structures. This locomotion mode is based on multi-module blocks. The upper layer plans the overall cluster motion called flow to realize locomotion along a given desired trajectory; the lower layer determines locally cooperative module motions, called motion schemes, based on a rule database. A planning simulation demonstrates that this approach effectively solves the complicated planning problem. Besides the fundamental motion capacity of the module, the hardware feasibility of the planning locomotion is verified through a self-reconfiguration experiment using the prototype modules we have developed.

Key Words: self-reconfigurable robot • modular robotics • planning • hierarchical planner • experimental robotics

The International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 21, No. 10-11, 903-915 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/0278364902021010835


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