TABLE OF CONTENTS Keith Kotay, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
Daniela Rus, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
Marsette Vona, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
Craig McGray, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
We discuss a robotic module called a Molecule. Molecules can be the basis for building self-reconfiguring robots. They support multiple modalities of locomotion and manipulation. We describe the design, functionality, and control of the Molecule. We show how a set of Molecules can aggregate as active three-dimensional structures that can move and change shape. We show an efficient algorithm for planning the trajectory of Molecules for self-reconfiguration. Finally, we discuss our Molecule experiments.
Our vision is to create versatile robots by using self-reconfiguration: hundreds of small modules will autonomously organize and reorganize as geometric structures to best fit the terrain on which the robot has to move, the shape of the object the robot has to manipulate, or the sensing needs for the given task. Large collections of small robots will actively organize as the most optimal geometric structure to perform useful coordinated work.
A self-reconfiguring robot consists of a set of identical modules that can dynamically and autonomously reconfigure in a variety of shapes, to best fit the terrain, environment, and task. Self-reconfiguration leads to versatile robots that can support multiple modalities of locomotion and manipulation. For example, a self-reconfiguring robot can aggregate as a snake to traverse a tunnel and then reconfigure as a six-legged robot to traverse rough terrain, such as a Lunar surface, and change shape...
