Multisensor-based autonomous docking for UBot modular reconfigurable robot

Abstract

Autonomous docking is still a major challenge for self-reconfigurable robots, it is an essential capability for the system to realize reconstruction, self-repairing and even for completing operational tasks in the complex environment. In this paper, we developed a new sensor module for the UBot self-reconfigurable robot system, and proposed a novel docking method for precise docking between module group with the sensor module and the target module. We describe this automated docking progress as three steps: The visual pre-positioning process; Precise positioning through hall sensors; Crawling and self-locking by the hook-type connecting systems. Finally, this method is proved to be effective by the S-4 module group automatic docking experiment.