Motion planning for heterogeneous modular mobile systems

Addresses the issue of developing a motion planning algorithm for a general class of modular mobile robots. A modular mobile robot is essentially a reconfigurable robot system in which locomotive modules such as legs, wheels, propellers, etc. can be attached at various locations on the body. The equations of motion for the robot are developed in terms of a set of generalized inputs related to the constraints and configurations of each individual module. The motion planning method developed in Lafferriere and Sussmann (1991) and extended in Goodwine and Burdick (1997) can then be modified to generate required trajectories for the modular robot. These methods generally lead to sequential motion plans-we also develop conditions under which two consecutive plans can be executed simultaneously.