A MOBILE, MODULAR,AND SELF-RECONFIGURABLE ROBOTIC SYSTEM WITH MORPHABILITY, and self-reconfigurable robotic system with morphability

This paper aims to gain a deep understanding of up-to-date research and development on modular self-reconfigurable robots (MSRs) through a thorough survey of market demands and published works on design methodologies, system integration, advanced controls, and new applications. Some limitations of existing mobile MSR are discussed from the reconfigurability perspective of mechanical structures, and a novel MSR system is proposed to address the identified limitations of existing MSRs. The comprehensive set of Functional Requirements (FRs) of MSRs is discussed, from which the mechanical designs of MSR were created, and the system was prototyped and built for testing. Three main innovations of the designed modules for MSR are to (1) share torque power, (2) customize the size for a given task, and (3) have a low number of actuated motors while still maintain a motion with high Degrees of Freedom (DoF) to overcome the constraints by the power capacities of individual motors; this helps to increase reconfigurability, reduce cost, and reduce the size of conventional MSRs.