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Design of the ATRON lattice-based self-reconfigurable robot

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Abstract

Self-reconfigurable robots are robots that can change their shape in order to better suit their given task in their immediate environment. Related work on around fifteen such robots is presented, compared and discussed. Based on this survey, design considerations leading to a novel design for a self-reconfigurable robot, called “ATRON”, is described. The ATRON robot is a lattice-based self-reconfigurable robot with modules composed of two hemispheres joined by a single revolute joint. Mechanical design and resulting system properties are described and discussed, based on FEM analyses as well as real-world experiments. It is concluded that the ATRON design is both competent and novel. Even though the ATRON modules are minimalistic, in the sense that they have only one actuated degree of freedom, the collective of modules is capable of self-reconfiguring in three dimensions. Also, a question is raised on how to compare and evaluate designs for self-reconfigurable robots, with a focus on lattice-based systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Maersk McKinney Moller Institute for Production Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK-5230, Odense M, Denmark

    Esben Hallundbæk Østergaard, Kristian Kassow, Richard Beck & Henrik Hautop Lund

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  1. Esben Hallundbæk Østergaard
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  2. Kristian Kassow
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  3. Richard Beck
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  4. Henrik Hautop Lund
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Esben Hallundbæk Østergaard, Ph.D., holds a Masters Degree in Computer Science from University of Aarhus, and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Systems Engineering from University of Southern Denmark. He has been working as a research scientist at University of Southern California at the USC Robotics Research Laboratories, and as a visiting researcher at the distributed systems group at the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba, Japan. He is currently working as a Post Doc at the Maersk McKinney Moller Institute for Production Technology at the University of Southern Denmark, and as an embedded software developer for Universal Robots ApS. Dr. Østergaard is former world champion in Robot Soccer, and has written more than 15 scientific papers. His research interests span from robot soccer through self-reconfigurable robots to industrial automation, in general, the fuzzy boundary dividing computer science from the physical world.

Kristian Kassow, Cand. Polyt., received a masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Technical University of Denmark in 2003. He worked as a research assistant on the Hydra Project 2003–2004, before starting at Grundfos Sensor Division in 2004, also doing Mechanical design of electromechanical components. In 2005 Kristian co-founded Universal Robots ApS together with Dr. Østergaard and a third colleagues from the Maersk Institute. Kristian Kassow is Director for Universal Robots ApS.

Richard Beck, Cand. Polyt. Mr. Beck holds a Masters Degree in Computer Systems Engineering from University of Southern Denmark. He is currently working as a Research Assistant at the Maersk McKinney Moller Institute for Production Technology at the University of Southern Denmark. His research interests are mainly self-reconfigurable robots and robotic systems in general. Currently he is working on the development of intelligent building block for use in feature playgrounds.

Henrik Hautop Lund, full professor. Is head of the AdapTronics Group (www.adaptronics.dk) at the Maersk Institute, University of Southern Denmark. His AdapTronics Group has won world championships (RoboCup Humanoids Free Style World Championship 2002, and FIRA KheperaSot World Championship 2002) and has been awarded several best paper awards for applying modern artificial intelligence to robotics. His research focuses on the role of morphology in intelligent autonomous systems, and his group is performing research in the field of modern artificial intelligence. Previously, he founded the LEGO Lab at the CIT/University of Aarhus in 1997, and worked as research associate from 1992 to 1995 at the Institute of Psychology, The National Research Council, Rome, Italy, doing research in the fields of artificial life, neural networks, and evolutionary computation. Further, he worked as research associate during 1996 and 1997 in the Department of Artificial Intelligence at University of Edinburgh, UK, doing research on biologically inspired robotics and evolutionary robotics. He has led numerous large research projects and projects involving collaboration between academic institutions and private companies. He founded the RoboCluster, a cluster of competencies in robotics comprising more than 100 interested parties (mainly industrial partners) in the region of Southern Denmark. He is member of the Danish National Research Council appointed by the minister of research, technology and innovation. His robot development work has been presented to HM Queen of Denmark, HM Emperor of Japan, prime ministers, etc. He has published more than 100 scientific articles.

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Østergaard, E.H., Kassow, K., Beck, R. et al. Design of the ATRON lattice-based self-reconfigurable robot. Auton Robot 21, 165–183 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-006-8546-1

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