Datom: A Deformable modular robot for building self-reconfigurable programmable matter
This addresses the challenge of reliable self-reconfiguration in modular robots, particularly for miniaturized systems, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing modular robot concepts with a new deformable design.
The paper tackles the problem of moving modules in modular robots while maintaining connections, proposing a deformable module design that enables movement without breaking links. They validate the movement feasibility in simulations, showing a motion process can reach all free positions on a surface for a given configuration.
Moving a module in a modular robot is a very complex and error-prone process. Unlike in swarm, in the modular robots we are targeting, the moving module must keep the connection to, at least, one other module. In order to miniaturize each module to few millimeters, we have proposed a design which is using electrostatic actuator. However, this movement is composed of several attachment, detachment creating the movement and each small step can fail causing a module to break the connection. The idea developed in this paper consists in creating a new kind of deformable module allowing a movement which keeps the connection between the moving and the fixed modules. We detail the geometry and the practical constraints during the conception of this new module. We then validate the possibility of movement for a module in an existing configuration. This implies the cooperation of some of the modules placed along the path and we show in simulation that it exists a motion process to reach every free positions of the surface for a given configuration.