A Reconfigurable robot workcell is a collection of standardized components, such as actuators, rigid links, tools, fixtures, sensors, and transport systems. These components can be rapidly assembled and configured to form a robotic workcell for a specific task. In this article, we describe the architecture of this type of reconfigurable workcells based on component technology. Both hardware and...

A reconfigurable robot is a robot that can change shape. Programming reconfigurable robots is complicated by the need to adapt the behavior of each of the individual module to the overall physical shape of the robot. In this position paper, we investigate a simple approach to allow the programmer to abstract over the concrete shape of a robot using the notion of a label as a simple means of add...

We discuss the applications of modular self-reconfigurable robots to navigation. We show that greedy algorithms are complete for motion planning over a class of modular reconfigurable robots. We illustrate the application of this result on two self-reconfigurable robot systems we designed and built in our lab: the robotic molecule and the atom. We describe the modules and our locomotion experim...

A Reconfigurable robot workcell is a collection of standardized components, such as actuators, rigid links, tools, fixtures, sensors, and transport systems. These components can be rapidly assembled and configured to form a robotic workcell for a specific task. In this article, we describe the architecture of this type of reconfigurable workcells based on component technology. Both hardware and...

This paper addresses a pet-type robot rehabilitation system for aged people. The robot offers interactivity, which can communicate autonomously and communicate with others using Internet-connectivity, for being a partner. To avoid being satiated with conversation, we propose reconfigurable interactivity, especially focused conversation contents. In order to watch over aged people through the Ne...

To accomplish tasks in the real world, a robot (especially a modular and self-reconfigurable one) must be able to autonomously react and adapt to unexpected and possibly simultaneous changes to its self (such as its sensors, gaits, goals and modules) and dynamic situations/configurations in the environment. Failures, faults and reconfiguration that commonly occur in modular robots result in sim...

This paper presents a summary of the system of "Reconfigurable Brachiating Space Robot". The robot consists of a center hub and three 6 degree-of-freedom arms with an end-effector and a pivot, which has a reconfigurable mechanism, for each arm. This space robot is capable of moving over the Japanese Experimental Module of the International Space Station in a brachiating manner and also of arm r...

We consider a model of reconfigurable robot, introduced and prototyped by the robotics community. The robot consists of independently manipulable unit-square atoms that can extend/contract arms on each side and attach/detach from neighbors. The optimal worst-case number of sequential moves required to transform one connected configuration to another was shown to be Θ(n) at ISAAC 2007. However, ...

Self-reconfigurable robots consist of simple robotic modules that play a similar role in robots as cells play in biological organisms. The vision of self-reconfigurable robots is to make an evolutionary jump for robotics analog to biological organisms that evolved from single-celled to multicelled. Such robots can autonomously self-reconfigure its modules to adjust both its behavior and morphol...