Telecubes: mechanical design of a module for self-reconfigurable robotics

A Telecube is a cubic module that has six prismatic degrees of freedom whose sides can expand more than twice its original length and has the ability to magnetically (de)attach to other modules. Many of these modules can be connected together to form a modular self-reconfigurable robot. The paper presents the intended functions, discusses the physical requirements of the modules and describes two key mechanical components: a compact telescoping linear actuator and a switching permanent magnet device.

[1]  Hajime Asama,et al.  Self-organizing collective robots with morphogenesis in a vertical plane , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.98CH36146).

[2]  William C. Orthwein.  Machine Component Design , 1990 .

[3]  Tad Hogg,et al.  Complex behaviors from local rules in modular self-reconfigurable robots , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[4]  Mark H. Yim,et al.  Locomotion With A Unit-Modular Reconfigurable Robot , 1995 .

[5]  David Cebon,et al.  Materials Selection in Mechanical Design , 1992 .

[6]  Eiichi Yoshida,et al.  A 3-D self-reconfigurable structure , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.98CH36146).

[7]  Marsette Vona,et al.  A physical implementation of the self-reconfiguring crystalline robot , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[8]  Sergei Vassilvitskii,et al.  A complete, local and parallel reconfiguration algorithm for cube style modular robots , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).

[9]  Toshio Fukuda,et al.  Dynamically reconfigurable robotic system , 1988, Proceedings. 1988 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[10]  Gregory S. Chirikjian,et al.  Design And Implementation Of Metamorphic Robots , 1996 .

[11]  Arancha Casal,et al.  Connectivity planning for closed-chain reconfiguration , 2000, SPIE Optics East.

[12]  Joseph Edward Shigley,et al.  Mechanical engineering design , 1972 .