M-TRAN II: metamorphosis from a four-legged walker to a caterpillar

Author

Kurokawa, Haruhisa ; Kamimura, Akiya ; Yoshida, Eiichi ; Tomita, Kohji ; Kokaji, Shigeru ; Murata, Satoshi

Author_Institution

Nat. Inst. of Adv. Ind. Sci. & Technol., Japan

Volume

3

fYear

2003

fDate

27-31 Oct. 2003

Firstpage

2454

Abstract

We have been developing a self-reconfigurable modular robotic system (M-TRAN) which can make various 3-D configurations and motions. In the second prototype (M-TRAN II), various improvements are integrated in order to realize complicated reconfigurations and versatile whole body motions. Those are a reliable connection/detachment mechanism, on-board multi-computers, high speed inter-module communication system, low power consumption, precise motor control, etc. Programing environments are also integrated to design self-reconfiguration processes, to verify motions in dynamics simulation, and to realize distributed control on the hardware. Hardware design, developed software and experiments are presented in this paper.

Keywords

distributed control; legged locomotion; machine control; 3D configurations; M-TRAN II; body motions; caterpillar; complicated reconfigurations; connection/detachment mechanism; distributed control; dynamics simulation; four legged walker; hardware design; high speed inter module communication system; low power consumption; metamorphosis; on-board multicomputers; precise motor control; programing environments; second prototype; self-reconfigurable modular robotic system; versatile; Distributed control; Energy consumption; Hardware; Information processing; Legged locomotion; Motor drives; Power system reliability; Process design; Prototypes; Robot kinematics;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2003. (IROS 2003). Proceedings. 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7860-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IROS.2003.1249238

Filename

1249238