On Optimal Con guration of Modular Recon gurable Robots

| A modular robotic system consists of standardized joint and link units that can be assembled into a number of di erent kinematic con gurations. Given a predetermined set of modules, this paper considers the problem of nding an \optimal" module assembly con guration for a speci c task. We formulate the solution as a discrete optimization procedure. The formulation is based on an assembly incidence matrix representation (AIM) of a modular robot and a general task-oriented objective function that can incorporate many realistic task criteria. An evolutionary algorithm based on genetic operators de ned on the AIMs are employed to solve this optimization problem. An example involving a 4-DOF manipulator con guration is demonstrated for the e ectiveness of this approach.

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