A cuboctahedron module for a reconfigurable robot

Abstract

We present a concept for a modular robot with a quasi-regular polyhedron based on a cuboctahedron element. Lattice-type modular robots can adapt their morphology by reconfiguring to various shapes. While regular polyhedrons provide the bases of many promising 3D lattice elements, few modular robots have shapes with more than six regular faces. The conceptual design and prototypes of cuboctahedron elements are presented in this paper. To account for the various connecting configurations between robotic modules, we propose a directed graph with three parameters to represent the morphology of such a modular robotic system.