IEEE Spectrum - Modular robots change shape to conquer tasks and tough terrain
On the use of sensors in self-reconfigurable robots
ICSAB Proceedings of the seventh international conference on simulation of adaptive behavior on From animals to animats
Self-reconfiguring robots: designs, algorithms, and applications
Self-reconfiguring robots: designs, algorithms, and applications
Heterogeneous self-reconfiguring robotics
Heterogeneous self-reconfiguring robotics
A self-reconfigurable communication network for modular robots
Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Robot communication and coordination
Neighbor detection and crosstalk elimination in self-reconfigurable robots
Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Robot communication and coordination
On the efficiency of local and global communication in modular robots
IROS'09 Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE/RSJ international conference on Intelligent robots and systems
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This paper describes the electronics and communication system of Odin, a novel heterogeneous modular robot made of links and joints. The electronics is divided into two printed circuit boards: a General board with reusable components and a Specific board with non-reusable components. While the General board is common to the design of every type of module, such as power, actuator, sensor and structure, the Specific board is unique to each type of module. The communication system, one of the most important reusable components of Odin, is based on local buses that can be extended by bridging electrical signals. The implementations of actuator and power links show that splitting the electronics into General and Specific boards allows rapid development of different types of modules, and an analysis of performance indicates that the communication system is simple, fast and flexible. As the electronic design reuses approx. 50% of components between two different types of modules, we find it convenient for heterogeneous modular robots where production costs demand a small set of parts. In addition, as the features of the communication system are desirable in modular robots, we think it is suitable for such systems as well as useful for future research into flexible network topologies.