Asymptotically Optimal Kinodynamic Motion Planning for Self-reconfigurable Robots

Self-reconfigurable robots are composed of many individual modules that can autonomously move to transform the shape and structure of the robot. In this paper we present a kinodynamically optimal algorithm for the following “x-axis to y-axis” reconfiguration problem: given a horizontal row of n modules, reconfigure that collection into a vertical column of n modules. The goal is to determine the sequence of movements of the modules that minimizes the movement time needed to achieve the desired reconfiguration of the modules. Prior work on self-reconfigurable (SR) robots assumed a constant velocity bound on module movement and so required time linear in n to solve this problem.

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