Modular robot connector area of acceptance from configuration space obstacles

Abstract

Physical connectors which have geometry to passively guide mating increases robustness in attachments. This is a key design area for self-reconfigurable modular robots, which frequently make and break connections. By repurposing the interpretation of a well-known motion planning tool in configuration space obstacles for its encoding of contact geometry, we present a method for determining a metric of error tolerance (area of acceptance) in multiple dimensions by construction. Watershed analysis is run on this configuration-space model to determine the full shape and area of the capture region for the connector pair. We show the results of this process for several connector types.