Failure recovery for modular robot movements without reassembling modules

Abstract

Modular robots consist of many mechatronic modules that can be connected into various shapes and therefore adapted for a given task or environment. Motion of the robots can be achieved by locomotion generators that control joints connecting the modules. An important advantage of modular robots is their ability to recover from failures by ejecting and replacing damaged modules. This type of failure recovery may be precluded due to inability of the broken modules to cooperate or when no spare modules are available. In such a case, locomotion of a damaged robot should be adapted to allow the robot to reach a repair station or even to finish its task without the need to exchange the broken modules. In this paper, we investigate how to recover from failures using the concept of motion planning with motion primitives and how to adapt the primitives to new situations. The proposed systems allows modular robots to move even if some modules fail. Besides modular robots, the proposed system is suitable also for other robots that can be driven by locomotion generators such as legged or snake-like robots.