Design of a mobile base for a self reconfigurable intelligent swarm fixture system

A self-reconfigurable fixture system, primarily targeted at the aerospace industry, is being developed within the inter-European SwarmItFIX project. The system is composed of one mobile base, one parallel mechanism and one adjustable head. This paper describes the mobile base, the subsystem which ensures rapid and precise locomotion, as well as secure docking, of the fixturing agent during the machining process. Several candidate designs with different locomotion methods are considered. A final solution is selected and the structure design is proposed