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Design and development of a reconfigurable tiling robot

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Abstract

This paper presents a novel polyromb-based self-reconfigurable domestic floor cleaning robot called “hRhombo” that consists of four rhombus-shaped modules connected with three revolute joints. The mechanical design of the robot gives rise to an over-actuated mathematical model. The mechanical design, electronics layout, kinematics relations, reconfiguration theory and trajectory tracking methodology for the robot are discussed. The forward kinematics and inverse kinematics are derived in terms of the angle between the modules and the wheel steering angles. The tracking controller exploits a poly-cycle approach, where each wheel has a different reference path depending on the current configuration of the robot. The model predictive controller technique is used to design optimal controller for four unicycles, modeling the four wheels. The numerical simulations and experiments reveal the usefulness of the robot in the domestic environment with complex furniture settings.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Robotics Programme under its Robotics Enabling Capabilities and Technologies (Funding Agency Project No. 192 25 00051) and National Robotics Programme under its Robot Domain Specific (Funding Agency Project No. 192 22 00058) and administered by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Robotics Programme under its Robotics Enabling Capabilities and Technologies (Funding Agency Project No. 192 25 00051) and National Robotics Programme under its Robot Domain Specific (Funding Agency Project No. 192 22 00058) and administered by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore, 487372, Singapore

    Rizuwana Parween, Shi Yuyao, Borusu Charan Satya Chandra Sairam & Mohan Rajesh Elara

  2. Electrical Engineering Department, Delhi Technological University, Delhi, 110042, India

    Madan Mohan Rayaguru

Authors
  1. Rizuwana Parween
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  2. Madan Mohan Rayaguru
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  3. Shi Yuyao
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  4. Borusu Charan Satya Chandra Sairam
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  5. Mohan Rajesh Elara
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The authors declare that all the authors are equally involved in experimental design, writing and editing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rizuwana Parween.

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Parween, R., Rayaguru, M.M., Yuyao, S. et al. Design and development of a reconfigurable tiling robot. Intel Serv Robotics 14, 629–639 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11370-021-00384-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11370-021-00384-5

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