Modular ATRON: modules for a self-reconfigurable robot

Abstract

This paper describes the mechanical and electrical design of a new lattice based self-reconfigurable robot, called the ATRON. The ATRON system consists of several fully self-contained robot modules, each having their own processing power, power supply, sensors and actuators. The ATRON modules are roughly spheres with equatorial rotation. Each module can be connected to up to eight neighbors through four male and four female connectors. In this paper, we describe the realization of the design, both the mechanics and the electronics. Details on power sharing and power consumption is given. Finally, this paper includes a brief outline of our future work on the ATRON system.