Design of a robotic module for autonomous exploration and multimode locomotion

Sheila Russo; Kanako Harada; Tommaso Ranzani; Luigi Manfredi; Cesare Stefanini; Arianna Menciassi; Paolo Dario

doi:10.1109/TMECH.2012.2212449

Design of a robotic module for autonomous exploration and multimode locomotion

Sheila Russo
, Kanako Harada
, Tommaso Ranzani
, Luigi Manfredi
, Cesare Stefanini
, Arianna Menciassi
, Paolo Dario

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Article number	6291793
Pages (from-to)	1757-1766
Number of pages	10
Journal	IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
Volume	18
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2012.2212449
Publication status	Published - 4 Sept 2013

Keywords

Autonomous exploration
Modular robots
Multimode locomotion
Self-reconfigurable robots

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Control and Systems Engineering
Computer Science Applications
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Access to Document

10.1109/TMECH.2012.2212449

Cite this

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title = "Design of a robotic module for autonomous exploration and multimode locomotion",

abstract = "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.",

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AU - Ranzani, Tommaso

AU - Manfredi, Luigi

AU - Stefanini, Cesare

AU - Menciassi, Arianna

AU - Dario, Paolo

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KW - Modular robots

KW - Multimode locomotion

KW - Self-reconfigurable robots

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Design of a robotic module for autonomous exploration and multimode locomotion

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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