Design of ArmBot: A Self-Reconfigurable Robot Module with Electromechanical Connectors

Modules are the basic components of modular self-reconfigurable robots. This paper presents a hybrid self-reconfigurable robot module named ArmBot. It consists of three rotary joints, two hermaphrodite electromechanical connectors and four passive connection surfaces, which enable it to have flexible self-reconfiguration movements. The electromechanical connectors of ArmBot can realize connections with active or passive connection surfaces at any 90° interval orientation to transmit power, communicate and detect relative orientation to other modules through electrical interfaces. Four basic self-reconfiguration motions of ArmBot were illustrated. The prototype of ArmBot was implemented and two typical self-reconfiguration motion experiments were conducted to verify its performance.