Structure Design and Kinematical Analysis of Lattice Distortion Actuating Self-reconfigurable Robots

For the difficulty of the large-scale lattice self-reconfigurable robot system moving as an ensemble, a novel method to achieve the whole motion through local lattice distortion is proposed. One of lattice distortion rules is given, a module structure is designed according to this rule, and the reconfiguration features of this module are analyzed with discrete substitution groups. Through a physical distortion experiment with 2 lattices consisted of 6 modules, it is validated that the lattice distortion can be achieved by the lattice composed of these modules. Through the high-fidelity virtual simulation platform based on Vortex+OSG, snake-like motion computer simulation of a lattice robot system consisted of 52 modules is conducted, and the results show that the proposed method can yield global motion through local lattice distortion.