Self-reconfiguring modular robot: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Robot that can rearrange its own parts}}

{{See also|Modular design}}

{{more citations needed|date=February 2010}}

{{External links|date=November 2024}}

'''Modular self-reconfiguring [[robot]]icrobotic systems''' or '''self-reconfigurable modular robots''' are autonomous kinematic [[machine]]s with variable morphology. Beyond conventional actuation, sensing and control typically found in fixed-morphology robots, self-reconfiguring robots[[robot]]s are also able to deliberately change their own shape by rearranging the connectivity of their parts, in order to adapt to new circumstances, perform new tasks, or recover from damage.

For example, a robot made of such components could assume a [[worm]]-like shape to move through a narrow pipe, reassemble into something with [[spider]]-like legs to cross uneven terrain, then form a third arbitrary object (like a ball or wheel that can spin itself) to move quickly over a fairly flat terrain; it can also be used for making "fixed" objects, such as walls, shelters, or buildings.

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* '''Heterogeneous''' modular robot systems have different modules, each of which do specialized functions, forming a structure suitable to perform a task. An advantage is compactness, and the versatility to design and add units to perform any task. A commonly described disadvantage is an increase in complexity of design, manufacturing, and simulation methods.[[File:Taxonomy_of_the_reconfigurable_robots.png|thumb|Conceptual representation for intra-, inter- and nested-reconfiguration under taxonomy of reconfigurable robots]]

Other modular robotic systems exist which are not self-reconfigurable, and thus do not formally belong to this family of robots though they may have similar appearance. For example, [[Self-assembly|self-assembling]] systems may be composed of multiple modules but cannot dynamically control their target shape. Similarly, tensegrity robotics may be composed of multiple interchangeable modules but cannot self-reconfigure. Self-reconfigurable robotic systems feature reconfigurability compared to their fixed-morphology counterparts and it can be defined as the extent/degree to which a self-reconfigurable robot or robotic systems can transform and evolve to another meaningful configuration with a certain degree of autonomy or human intervention.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tan|first1=Ning|last2=Hayat|first2=Abdullah Aamir|last3=Elara|first3=Mohan Rajesh|last4=Wood|first4=Kristin L.|date=2020|title=A Framework for Taxonomy and Evaluation of Self-Reconfigurable Robotic Systems|journal=IEEE Access|volume=8|pages=13969–13986|doi=10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2965327|issn=2169-3536|doi-access=free|bibcode=2020IEEEA...813969T }} {{CC-notice|cc=by4|url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8954702}}

</ref> The reconfigurable system can also be classified according to the mechanism reconfigurability.

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==Application areas==

Given these advantages, where would a modular self-reconfigurable system be used? While the system has the promise of being capable of doing a wide variety of things, finding the "[[killer application]]" has been somewhat elusive. Here are several examples:

===Space exploration===

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|Elara, Prathap, Hayat, Parween (SUTD, Singapore)

|2019

|-

| [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9738480 Soft Lattice Modules]

| Lattice, Soft Modular 3D

| Zhao et al., (Dartmouth)

| 2022

|-

| [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10146508 StarBlocks]

| Hybrid, Deformable 3D

| Zhao et al., (Dartmouth)

| 2023

|-

|AuxBots <ref>Lillian Chin; Max Burns; Gregory Xie; Daniela Rus. "[https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9976216 Flipper-Style Locomotion Through Strong Expanding Modular Robots]" in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters ( Volume: 8, Issue: 2, Page(s): 528 - 535, February 2023)</ref>

|Chain, 3D

|Chin, Burns, Xie, Rus (MIT, USA)

|2023

|-

| [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60982-0 Tensegrity-Blocks]

| Hybrid, Tensegrity Modular 3D

| Zhao, Jiang, Chen, Bekris, Balkcom, (Dartmouth)

| 2025

|-

|}

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;AMOEBA-I (2005)

AMOEBA-I, a three-module reconfigurable mobile robot was developed in Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) by Liu J G et al.[httphttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=1708645][https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11432-007-0068-8].AMOEBA-I has nine kinds of non-isomorphic configurations and high mobility under unstructured environments. Four generations of its platform have been developed and a series of researches have been carried out on their reconfiguration mechanism, non-isomorphic configurations, tipover stability, and reconfiguration planning. Experiments have demonstrated that such kind structure permits good mobility and high flexibility to uneven terrain. Being hyper-redundant, modularized and reconfigurable, AMOEBA-I has many possible applications such as Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) and space exploration.

Ref_1: see [httphttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=1708645];

Ref_2: see [https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11432-007-0068-8]

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Three large scale prototypes were built in attempt to demonstrate dynamically programmable three-dimensional stochastic reconfiguration in a neutral-buoyancy environment. The first prototype used electromagnets for module reconfiguration and interconnection. The modules were 100&nbsp;mm cubes and weighed 0.81&nbsp;kg. The second prototype used stochastic fluidic reconfiguration and interconnection mechanism. Its 130&nbsp;mm cubic modules weighed 1.78&nbsp;kg each and made reconfiguration experiments excessively slow. The current third implementation inherits the fluidic reconfiguration principle. The lattice grid size is 80&nbsp;mm, and the reconfiguration experiments are under way.<ref>

[httphttps://creativemachines.cornell.edu/ the Cornell Creative Machines Lab (CCSL)]

[httphttps://creativemachines.cornell.edu/stochastic_modular_robotics Stochastic Modular Robotics].

</ref>