Research On The Structure And Self-Morphing Method Of The Hybrid Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robot

Self-reconfigurable modular robot is composed of a certain number of modules with simple function and perceptual ability.This kind of robot can change its configuration by the connection,disconnection and rotation among modules.So the robot can accomplish different tasks by changing its configuration according to the working environment.So selfreconfigurable modular robot is especially suitable for the unknown and non-structural environment,such as space exploration,deep sea detection,disaster rescue and so on.In this paper,a novel hybrid self-reconfigurable modular robot system is designed.The basic module of the robot system is composed of a master module and a slave module.The shapes of the master module and the slave module are both the regular triangular prism.There is a connecting shaft between the master module and the slave module and it can rotate 360 degree.The master module consists of three parts: an inner claw structure,an outer claw structure and a driving structure of the connecting shaft.The slave module consists of an inner claw structure and an outer claw structure.The docking structure between modules is the inner claw structure and the outer claw structure.The connection and disconnection between modules is done by the connection and disconnection between the inner claw structure and the outer claw structure.The inner claw structure can rotate 360 degree,too.The self-reconfigurable robot changes its space configuration through the connection,disconnection and rotation among modules.After the structure design,we design the control system which includes the hardware circuit and the software programming.According to the movement process of the basic module,the corresponding sensors are selected,such as infrared sensor,encoder disk and Holzer sensor.These sensors are used to measure the docking and rotation of basic modules.The hardware structure is based on singlechip PLC2131,which is connected with the measurement unit,wireless communication unit,motor driving unit and so on.The C language,whose programming environment is UV4,is used in software programming.We use C language to program the singlechip PLC2131.This procedure not only deal with the instruction computer send but also execute the corresponding operation,such as motor rotation,reception of the measurement unit information,feedbacking the own state information to computer and so on.The posture connection state matrix method is adopted to describe module state and the robot space configuration.This matrix contains the position,attitude and connection state of modules,which fully reflects the spatial information of the module.At the same time,the locomotion rules,including docking rules and rotation rules,of robot modules are analyzed.The possible motion space position in the different connection situation of the basic module connection surface is also analyzed,which lays the foundation for the self-morphing algorithm.One of the most important reasons why self-reconfigurable robot can accomplish different tasks according to different environments is the ability of self-morphing.According to the motion characteristics of selfreconfigurable robot module,the self-morphing algorithm based on mark points is proposed.By looking for the first order and first grade effective motion space of different modules between the current configuration and the target configuration,the robot completes the morphing step by step according to the driving function.At last the morphing algorithm is simulated with Java 3D technology.