Distributed and Cellular Robots

This chapter is organized according to a number of broad classes of problem where modular robotic systems can prove beneficial. For each such problem, the benefits of modularity are described, along with the ways that particular systems or proposed systems have explored those benefits. In particular, we discuss locomotion in Sect. 39.1, manipulation in Sect. 39.2, modular robot geometry in Sect. 39.3, and robust systems in Sect. 39.4. The systems under consideration in general have some level of independent computation on each module, and this discussion will focus on systems in which modules maintain some sort of kinematic constraint between them during operation. Compared to the types of multirobot teams described in Chap. 40, the systems of interest here are generally much more tightly coupled, both physically and conceptually. That is, we are primarily concerned with systems which, though they have many processors and independent actuators, have a single goal or small set of goals which can only be achieved collectively, rather than a set of goals 39.1 Modularity for Locomotion 911 39.1.1 Self-Reconfigurable Robot Locomotion 912 39.1.2 Physically Cooperative Mobile Robots 914