Aggregation and docking strategies for mobile self-reconfigurable robots

The reversible process between distributed robots and connected robot is the key issue of mobile self-reconfigurable robots, which can be divided into two phases of aggregation and docking. In this paper, corresponding strategies are proposed for robots enhanced with mobility. In the dynamic aggregation mechanisms, the optimal locations are determined based on the multi-object optimization of time cost, energy consumption, and system balance. Besides, a predictive chasing method is developed for collective robots to adjust position and attitude. Based on the aggregation results, docking strategy makes all the adjacent robots connect together via docking devices including MEMS-navigation module and embedded vision. All the strategies are applied to the control of mobile self-reconfigurable robots, and experiments are performed. The results show that the proposed strategies are effective for the implementation of reversible process.