Self-reconfigurable modular robot M-TRAN: distributed control and communication

Authors:
Haruhisa Kurokawa;Kohji Tomita;Akiya Kamimura;Shigeru Kokaji;Takashi Hasuo;Satoshi Murata
Affiliations:
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan;National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan;National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan;National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan;University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan;Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan
Venue:
Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Robot communication and coordination
Year:
2007

Citing 3
Cited 2

Self-reconfiguring robots

Communications of the ACM - Robots: intelligence, versatility, adaptivity
Self-Repairing Mechanical Systems

Autonomous Robots
Evolved and Designed Self-Reproducing Modular Robotics

IEEE Transactions on Robotics

Experiments with a ZigBee wireless communication system for self-reconfiguring modular robots

ICRA'09 Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE international conference on Robotics and Automation
Efficient constant-velocity reconfiguration of crystalline robots**

Robotica

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

M-TRAN is a self-reconfigurable modular robot: each module has an independent battery, two-degree-of-freedom motion, six-surface-connection capability, and intelligence with inter-module communication. The M-TRAN system can perform flexible and adaptive locomotion in various configurations using coordination control based on a central pattern generator (CPG). Various structures of several modules can perform metamorphosis, such as that between a four-legged robot and a snake-like one. In addition to these self-reconfigurations with synchronous control, M-TRAN structures having regularity can move using parallel distributed control and message exchange via the network bus. Self-reconfiguration using infrared local communication has been attempted to improve the system's scalability.