Realization of a Modular Reconfigurable Robot for Rough Terrain

Abstract

Reconfigurable robotic systems are made from a large number of independent modules that can be used to form various robot shapes. As a result, the robots have the capability to adopt optimized configurations to suit different tasks and environments. The object of this research work is to build a mobile robot for rough terrain. In this paper, we developed a novel modular reconfigurable robotic system called JL-I. JL-I is a distributed system composed of several identical modules. Each module is self-contained including two powered tracks, a docking mechanism, pose-adjusting mechanisms, batteries, communication devices and microprocessors. The docking mechanisms allow the modules to connect or disconnect under computer control, and between each two adjacent modules, the pose-adjusting mechanisms are able to form an active spherical joint, which endows the robot with the abilities of changing shapes in three dimensions. This design of JL-I module realizes versatile robotic motion and configurations. Many useful functionalities such as getting recovery when the robot is turnover, getting over vertical steps can be obtained by different chain of motions. This paper describes the development, hardware and software construction of the JL-I robot. An actual system with three modules was build and basic configurations were examined