FSET: Fast Structure Embedding Technique for Self-reconfigurable Modular Robotic Systems

Abstract

The rapid growth in communication technologies has lead to a new generation of robotics called as Modular Robotic System (MRS). The most crucial process in MRS is self-reconfiguration, which is regarded as the major challenge for such technology. Indeed, creating new morphology and behaviors manually is a time-consuming and costly process, especially when dealing with complex structures. In this paper, we have proposed a fast self-reconfiguration technique called FSET, i.e. Fast SET, dedicated to MRSs. Our proposed technique consists mainly in two stages: root selection and morphology formation. The final goal of these stages is to enhance the time cost to get new morphology of the traditional SET algorithm thus, ensure fast self-reconfiguration. The root selection stage selects a small number of modules in order to find the best tree roots that effects the topological conditions that leads to successful of the embedding process or not. The morphology formation stage uses the traditional SET algorithm to calculate the embedding truth table where the initial roots used are taken from the first stage. Finally, we show the efficiency of our mechanism through simulations on real scenario using M-TRAN, in terms providing a fast reconfiguration process in MRS and reducing the energy consumption of modules thus, increasing its lifetime.