Reconfigurable Robot Control Using Flexible Coupling Mechanisms

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Yi, Sha, Sycara, Katia, Temel, Zeynep
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
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author Yi, Sha
Sycara, Katia
Temel, Zeynep
author_facet Yi, Sha
Sycara, Katia
Temel, Zeynep
contents Reconfigurable robot swarms are capable of connecting with each other to form complex structures. Current mechanical or magnetic connection mechanisms can be complicated to manufacture, consume high power, have a limited load-bearing capacity, or can only form rigid structures. In this paper, we present our low-cost soft anchor design that enables flexible coupling and decoupling between robots. Our asymmetric anchor requires minimal force to be pushed into the opening of another robot while having a strong pulling force so that the connection between robots can be secured. To maintain this flexible coupling mechanism as an assembled structure, we present our Model Predictive Control (MPC) frameworks with polygon constraints to model the geometric relationship between robots. We conducted experiments on the soft anchor to obtain its force profile, which informed the three-bar linkage model of the anchor in the simulations. We show that the proposed mechanism and MPC frameworks enable the robots to couple, decouple, and perform various behaviors in both the simulation environment and hardware platform. Our code is available at https://github.com/ZoomLabCMU/puzzlebot_anchor . Video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3gFplorCJg .
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_16265
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Reconfigurable Robot Control Using Flexible Coupling Mechanisms
Yi, Sha
Sycara, Katia
Temel, Zeynep
Robotics
Reconfigurable robot swarms are capable of connecting with each other to form complex structures. Current mechanical or magnetic connection mechanisms can be complicated to manufacture, consume high power, have a limited load-bearing capacity, or can only form rigid structures. In this paper, we present our low-cost soft anchor design that enables flexible coupling and decoupling between robots. Our asymmetric anchor requires minimal force to be pushed into the opening of another robot while having a strong pulling force so that the connection between robots can be secured. To maintain this flexible coupling mechanism as an assembled structure, we present our Model Predictive Control (MPC) frameworks with polygon constraints to model the geometric relationship between robots. We conducted experiments on the soft anchor to obtain its force profile, which informed the three-bar linkage model of the anchor in the simulations. We show that the proposed mechanism and MPC frameworks enable the robots to couple, decouple, and perform various behaviors in both the simulation environment and hardware platform. Our code is available at https://github.com/ZoomLabCMU/puzzlebot_anchor . Video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3gFplorCJg .
title Reconfigurable Robot Control Using Flexible Coupling Mechanisms
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.16265