Kinematics of a metamorphic robotic system

Abstract

A metamorphic robotic system is a collection of mechatronic modules, each of which has the ability to connect, disconnect, and climb over adjacent modules. A change in the macroscopic morphology results from the locomotion of each module over its neighbors. That is, a metamorphic system can dynamically self-reconfigure. Metamorphic systems can therefore be viewed as a large swarm of physically connected robotic modules which collectively act as a single entity. What separates metamorphic systems from other reconfigurable robots is that they possess all of the following properties: (1) self-reconfigurability without outside help; (2) a large number of homogeneous modules; and (3) physical constraints ensure contact between modules. In this paper, the kinematic constraints governing a particular metamorphic robot are addressed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>