Distributed Control in Waterflow-Like Locomotion for UBot Modular Robot over Uneven Terrain

Abstract

Distributed control, represented by Cellular Automata (CA), has advantage over centralized control for Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot (MSRR) in capability of extension, efficiency and robustness. But due to the fact that the modular constraints, e.g., the number of DOF and the physical geometry, etc., the ideal CA rules cannot be implemented on the real robot system easily. The goal of the research is on design and implementation of distributed control based on integrated module design and CA rules arrangement. 2-DOF cubic-shaped modular model is first proposed, that is the Ubot module. Cellular rules are arranged according to the locomotion property of UBot module, and distributed control algorithm is designed for the robot to cross the uneven terrain. In simulation and on physical robotic hardware platform, experiments are carried out for UBot to verify the validity of CA theory applied on reconfiguration locomotion of UBot MSRR systems in complex environment.