A distributed formation control method is proposed for a modular mechanical system. We have developed a totally decentralized system composed of many homogeneous mechanical units which are designed to change their connective configuration using only local information. The control method proposed in this paper enables the systems to re-organize themselves so that various configurations can be formed in a robust way. Computer simulations and experiments are carried out to show its effectiveness
Published in:
Intelligent Robots and Systems, 1997. IROS '97., Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on
(Volume:2
)
Date of Conference: 7-11 Sep 1997