Distributed Metamorphosis of Regular M-TRAN Structures

A key issue in controlling the morphing process of a self-reconfigurable robot is how to deal with the complexity introduced by limitations in the mechanical capabilities of an actual physical system. In this paper, we explore how structural regularity can be exploited to reduce this complexity, by considering three specific structures that consist of many M-TRAN modules. Two control approaches are presented and compared for an example 2-dimensional flow motion. One approach considers programming using subroutines and local variables, and the other considers a direct mapping from the local physical state of a module to the modules’ action space. Also, we discuss the concept of sprouting, a process in which structures grow substructures.