Ultrasonic based autonomous docking on plane for mobile robot

Autonomous docking between independent robotic modules is critical for self-reconfigurable robots. This ability allows independent reconfigurable robots in the same environment to join together to complete a task that would otherwise not be possible with the individual robots prior to merging. This paper presents an easy and inexpensive implementation of such a system using only one ultrasonic transmitter and one receiver on each of two docking modules of JL-1. The characteristic of ultrasonic signal, being sensitive to distance and angle between transmitter and receiver, is applied to align two robots in this paper. Experiments have indicated that alternating active rotation and ultrasonic based guidance method can align two robots in one line, and ready for docking. The theory proposed in paper is general and can be applied to other inter-docking process on plane.