A Basis for Self-Repair Robots Using Self-Reconguring Crystal Modules

Self-repair robots are modular robots that have the capability of detecting and recovering from failures. Typically, such robots are unit-modular and carry a number of redundant modules on their bodies. Self-repair consists of detecting the failure of a module, ejecting the bad module and replacing it with one of the extra modules. In this paper we show how self-repair can be accomplished by self-reconfiguring Crystalline robots. We describe the Crystalline robots, which consist of modules that can aggregate together to form distributed robot systems and are actuated by expanding and contracting each unit. This actuation mechanism permits automated shape metamorphosis. We also describe an algorithm that uses this actuation mechanism for self-repair.

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