Collision-Free Reconfiguration Planning for Variable Topology Trusses Using a Linking Invariant

Abstract

We introduce a multi-modal reconfiguration planner for the Variable Topology Truss (VTT) modular robot system. The VTT system is a truss-architecture modular self-reconfigurable robot. When a VTT is restricted to a single topology, the collision constraints between the truss members divide the configuration space into many connected components, which makes collision-free planning difficult. This new planner leverages a mathematical invariant based on link theory to find topological reconfiguration actions that can connect these different regions and make progress towards a goal. We show that this planner is effective at finding paths between configurations with different truss topologies.