A stochastic self-reconfigurable modular robot with mobility control

Recently, a variety of robotic systems have been studied under the umbrella term of modular reconfigurable robotics.

Unlike conventional fixed-morphology robots, whose performance is usually confined by the operating environment and their own size, modular reconfigurable robots have the potential advantage of being able to change their morphology by rearranging the connectivity of their modular units.

This project investigates the development and improvement of a self-reconfigurable modular robot designed in previous work to study the emergence of robotic life-forms in a controllable physical environment (Gross et al., ECAL 2009).

The system contains 7cm x 7cm squared robot units. Each unit is externally propelled and floats randomly on an air table. Each unit can establish and abolish up to four physical connections with other units by means of swivelling permanent magnets.

Using a finite state machine, the robotic system can achieve autonomous connectivity, inter-unit communication and response to stimuli in a changing environment.

A newly-designed air table and two novel prototype units were built. The most important contribution is a novel jack mechanism that allows for mobility control of the units that otherwise move passively.

Videos

All in real speed.

One unit floating on the airtable configured for circular motion.

One unit with mobility control (jack mechanism) responding to the presence of a light source.

Two units self-assembling on the airtable.

Two connected units floating on the airtable configured for random motion.

Two units configured to attract each other (LEDs on) establish a connection; once the connection is detected (by IR communication), they configure themselves to repel each other and therefore disconnect (LEDs off); once a loss of connection is detected, they configure themselves again to attract each other (LEDs on) and the process starts from the beginning.

1. R. Ding, P. Eastwood, F. Mondada, and R. Groß, A Stochastic Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robot with Mobility Control. Extended Abstract submitted to TAROS 2012