Modules Classification and Automatic Generation of Kinematics on Self-reconfigurable Modular Machines (Englisch)

Abstract Self-reconfigurable modular mechanical systems consist of a set of homogeneous units. We analyze the abstract modular structure of self-reconfigurable machines. A total of seven types of cuboid modules and two types of cubic modules have been classified. The concepts of basic group and basic cycle subgroup are proposed. The geometric relationships of each type of modules are derived with group theory. The transformation matrix TL and other characteristic parameters can be obtained iteratively and simply. For the purpose of automatic generation of the forward kinematics, an approach has been adopted by a series of elemental matrixes multiplication with PME (product of matrix exponentials). The methods used are very general and can be applied easily to other modular robots. Examples of the kinematics for a quadruped and a morphing dual-arm reconfigurable robot are given to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methods generating the kinematics.