Development of motion type reconfigurable modular robot for multi-task application

Abstract

This paper aims to provide the theoretical design of a special type of modular reconfigurable robot system (MRRS) with locally chain-based topology: the motion type reconfigurable robot (MTRR). Different from the existing industrial robots which are designed to perform general task, The modular reconfigurable robot system can provide diversity and optimal robotic configurations to be suited for specific task requirements through proper selection and reconfiguration of the modules with uniform docking interfaces. The diversity of the configurations makes the MRRS flexible, adaptive to the changing environment and is suited for multi-task working purpose. All these make the research on MRRS very challenge but more difficult. This paper introduce a novel motion type reconfigurable robotic architecture with two cubical joint modules. This MRRS can be realized by splitting a given task into several subtasks that can be finished by much simpler sub-mechanical systems. These sub-mechanical systems with modularized design units can posses better rigidity, lower cost, higher reliability, ease of maintenance, shorten the development cycle time and rapid deployment for custom-designed, etc. Using this robot system, the printed circuit board (PCB) assembly can be totally automatization.