Modelling, Simulation, and Planning for the MoleMOD System
This enables simulation and planning for a modular robotic system used in architecture and civil engineering, though the work appears incremental.
The authors developed a test environment and planning algorithm for the MoleMOD modular robotic system, creating realistic simulation models in Gazebo and implementing a method to plan collision-free trajectories for robot fleets between configurations.
MoleMOD is a heterogeneous self-reconfigurable modular robotic system to be employed in architecture and civil engineering. In this paper we present two components of the MoleMOD infrastructure - a test environment and a planning algorithm. The test environment for simulation and visualization of active parts as well as passive blocks of MoleMOD is based on Gazebo - a powerful general-purpose robotic simulator. The key effort has been put into preparation of realistic models of passive and active components taking into account their physical characteristics. Moreover, given a starting configuration of the MoleMOD system and a final configuration an approach to plan collision-free trajectories for a fleet of active parts is introduced.