Design of a chain-type self-reconfigurable robots

As for military reconnaissance, disaster relief applications such as stairs, stair type of obstacle, the paper propose the use of chain -type self-reconfigurable robots, overally plan the function modules of the robot, finish the design and making of the robot´s mechanical system and control system and the corresponding performance testing. The test results show that the design is scientific and reasonable and meet the application requirements. Innovation in this article include: enhancing the use of harmonic reducer, realizing a large reduction ratio and high output torque in a smaller space; using a number of highly integrated controller chip in the control system´s functional modules to separate the task between scheduling and implementation. Embeding microcontroller is mainly responsible for scheduling management, and specific implementation can be finished by the lower control chip. This can greatly reduce the burden on microcontroller, let the microcontroller to have more time to respond and deal with real-time event, and so that the embeding control system has good performance of real-time, and it is helpful to achieving the intelligent control of the self-reconfigurable robots team.