TY - JOUR
T1 - Design of a robotic module for autonomous exploration and multimode locomotion
AU - Russo, Sheila
AU - Harada, Kanako
AU - Ranzani, Tommaso
AU - Manfredi, Luigi
AU - Stefanini, Cesare
AU - Menciassi, Arianna
AU - Dario, Paolo
PY - 2013/9/4
Y1 - 2013/9/4
N2 - The mechanical design of a novel robotic module for a self-reconfigurable modular robotic system is presented in this paper. The robotic module, named Scout robot, was designed to serve both as a fully sensorized autonomous miniaturized robot for exploration in unstructured environments and as a module of a larger robotic organism. The Scout robot has a quasi-cubic shape of 105 mm × 105 mm × 123.5 mm, and weighs less than 1 kg. It is provided with tracks for 2-D locomotion and with two rotational DoFs for reconfiguration and macrolocomotion when assembled in a modular structure. A laser sensor was incorporated to measure the distance and relative angle to an object, and image-guided locomotion was successfully demonstrated. In addition, five Scout robot prototypes were fabricated, and multimodal locomotion of assembled robots was demonstrated.
AB - The mechanical design of a novel robotic module for a self-reconfigurable modular robotic system is presented in this paper. The robotic module, named Scout robot, was designed to serve both as a fully sensorized autonomous miniaturized robot for exploration in unstructured environments and as a module of a larger robotic organism. The Scout robot has a quasi-cubic shape of 105 mm × 105 mm × 123.5 mm, and weighs less than 1 kg. It is provided with tracks for 2-D locomotion and with two rotational DoFs for reconfiguration and macrolocomotion when assembled in a modular structure. A laser sensor was incorporated to measure the distance and relative angle to an object, and image-guided locomotion was successfully demonstrated. In addition, five Scout robot prototypes were fabricated, and multimodal locomotion of assembled robots was demonstrated.
KW - Autonomous exploration
KW - Modular robots
KW - Multimode locomotion
KW - Self-reconfigurable robots
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84898602282&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TMECH.2012.2212449
DO - 10.1109/TMECH.2012.2212449
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84898602282
VL - 18
SP - 1757
EP - 1766
JO - IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
JF - IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
SN - 1083-4435
IS - 6
M1 - 6291793
ER -