A Spherical Self-reconfigurable Modular Robot Joint with Electromechanical Connector based on Vision-guided Docking

Abstract With the development of robotics, more and more different types of robotic systems appear. Among them, the modular self-reconfigurable robot is a relatively cutting-edge robot with high research value. Modular self-reconfigurable robot is a robot system composed of several unit modules connected and capable of autonomous deformation and reconfiguration. Meta-module is the basic unit and the most important component of the modular self-reconfigurable robot. Each module has complete functions such as docking, perception, motion, and control. Compared with traditional robots, our modular robots have the characteristics of free docking, deformable reconfiguration, and can be changed into different configurations to adapt to different tasks in robot applications. In this paper, we propose a spherical self-reconfigurable robot modular joint with electromechanical connector. The robot joint has three degrees of freedom and can be used as a unit module of a self-reconfigurable robot system to form self-reconfigurable robots with different configurations. An electromechanical connector with a single degree of freedom is proposed for vision-guided docking and electromechanical connection. Finally, we manufacture a self-reconfigurable robot modular joint prototype, build an experimental platform, and conduct experimental testing and performance verification on the prototype. A series of experiments on dislocation tolerance, visual inspection positioning accuracy, and bearing capacity test were carried out on the prototype of the connector to verify the feasibility of the design. In addition, a vision-guided autonomous docking test was performed to verify the overall performance of the connector.