Toward a scalable modular robotic system

Abstract

In this article, we propose a simple docking method using an onboard camera module. It has two key ideas: one is image processing using a camera module and LEDs equipped on the modules, and the other is a special modular configuration designed for docking, which absorbs positional errors. We also designed a self-reconfiguration sequence to integrate a docked robot into a periodic structure. The effectiveness of the proposed method is examined by docking/integration experiments using 18 modules.