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The International Journal of Robotics Research
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Distributed Self-Reconfiguration of M-TRAN III Modular Robotic System

Haruhisa Kurokawa

Intelligent Systems Research Institute National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan, kurokawa-h{at}aist.go.jp

Kohji Tomita

Intelligent Systems Research Institute National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan

Akiya Kamimura

Intelligent Systems Research Institute National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan

Shigeru Kokaji

Intelligent Systems Research Institute National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan

Takashi Hasuo

Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering at University of Tsukuba Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8573, Japan

Satoshi Murata

Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering Tokyo Institute of Technology Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan

A new prototype of a self-reconfigurable modular robot, M-TRAN III, has been developed, with an improved fast and rigid connection mechanism. Using a distributed controller, various control modes are possible: single-master, globally synchronous control or parallel asynchronous control. Self-reconfiguration experiments using up to 24 modules were undertaken by centralized or decentralized control. Experiments using decentralized control examined a modular structure moved in a given direction as a flow produced by local self-reconfigurations. In all experiments, system homogeneity and scalability were maintained: modules used identical software except for their ID numbers. Identical self-reconfiguration was realized when different modules were used in initial configurations.

Key Words: distributed autonomous system • decentralized control • controller area network

The International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 27, No. 3-4, 373-386 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0278364907085560
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