On the Use of Sensors in Self-Reconfigurable Robots

摘要

In this paper we investigate the use of sensors in self-reconfigurable robots. We review several physically realized self-reconfigurable robots and conclude that little attention has been paid to the use of sensors. This is unfortunate since sensors can provide essential feedback that can be used to guide self-reconfiguration and control. In the systems that do use sensor feedback, the feedback is used locally on each module. However we identify a need in some situations to use sensor feedback globally. We therefore propose an approach where raw sensor values are abstracted and propagated to all modules. The sensor values are abstracted differently depending on the position of the producing sensor on the robot. We combine this approach with role based control, a control method for self-reconfigurable robots that we have developed earlier. We demonstrate that by combing these two approaches it is possible to make a self-reconfigurable robot consisting of six modules walk and avoid obstacles. However the reaction time of the robot is slow and therefore we discus possible ways of reducing the reaction time.