Cooperative reconfiguration between two specific configurations for a shape-shifting robot

Abstract

A shape-shifting mobile robot named AMOEBA-I has diverse configurations. Cooperative reconfiguration is presented to improve the robot's reconfigurable ability and adaptability in unstructured environments. Cooperative reconfiguration method is analyzed theoretically. A mathematical model is established correspondingly and the kinematical relations among the three modules during the cooperative reconfiguration are determined. The transformation is implemented between two specific configurations. Then, an evaluation is proposed for AMOEBA-I's cooperative reconfiguration performance. The feature of cooperative reconfiguration methods is compared through the theoretical analysis and experiments. Experimental results prove the validity of the cooperative reconfiguration methods on various grounds.