An overview of the development on reconfiguration of metamorphic mechanisms

Abstract

Metamorphic mechanisms and metamorphic robots are able to deliberately change their own shape by rearranging the connectivity of their parts. The reconfiguration process of the mechanisms contains various topological configurations with multiple configuration states to accommodate topology transformation. Over the last decade, the study of metamorphic mechanism and metamorphic robotics has advanced from conceptual study to elaborating theories and physical implementations. The goal of this article is to outline some of this progress and propose some key perspectives.