Dynamic power sharing for self-reconfigurable modular robots

2012-05-06Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robots is one important field in the robotics research. It can be used to deal with the unforeseen situations, fixing the distributed problems, self-recover from damage and among others. In Chapter 1: Introduction briefly introduces Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robots’ background and application and explains why Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robots need Power Sharing mechanism. ❧ Chapter 2 demonstrates the SuperBot rolling track example and explains the importance of Power Sharing functions. ❧ Chapter 3: Research Problem describes the problems including various power consumption problems, charging problem, communication problem and brings out the objective: how modular robots share power between them dynamically. ❧ Chapter 4: Challenges lists the challenges including making a decision and communication in a distributed manner. Three related research are discussed and compared with the Dynamic Power Sharing Mechanism. ❧ Chapter 5: System Design shows the whole system structure including software and hardware. In the software part, several main functions which are used to accomplish Power Sharing Functions are introduced. In the hardware part, the hardware design procedure and main components are discussed. ❧ Chapter 6: Dynamic Power Sharing, six Power Sharing scenarios including 1. Offering Power, 2. Bypass Power, 3. Receiving Power Only, 4. Charging the Battery Only, 5. Both Charging the Battery and Receiving Power and 6. Power Sharing Communication Protocol are demonstrated to present how the Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robots share power dynamically. The Power Sharing Communication Protocol was created in order to help each modular robot to negotiate what kind scenario they want to adapt. The Power Sharing Algorithm is also brought out to make the Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robots doing Powering Sharing in a distributed manner. ❧ Chapter 7: Conclusion summarizes the possible power problems which Power Sharing Functions can solve. The future work including large scale, power management, power loss, optimizing Power Sharing in different tasks is discussed