Algorithms for Intelligent Control of Reconfi gurable Robots in a Wheel Confi guration and Multi-Agent Systems Based on them

Abstract

The article provides a brief analysis of the key challenges in the development of mechatronic-modular robots with adaptive kinematic structure, which operational reconfiguration is performed in an automatic mode, depending on the characteristics of the problem and conditions for its solution. It is shown that among the many problems in the development of such robots, one of the most important is in the provision of external sensory functions. The original approach is proposed to create promising samples of the new generation reconfigurable robotic systems with expanded capabilities in sensory, locomotor and other functions based on a complex integration of the mechatronic-modular structures of limited functionality. It is claimed that practical implementation of the proposed approach allows for various ways of its physical implementation and essentially boils down to formation of the multiagent system that combines interacting mechatronic-modular structures, whose movement must be synchronized, in a single composition. As an example, two fundamentally different equipment options of the wheel-configuration modular robot with mechatronic-modular walking "platform" carrying technical vision and being able to move in the opposite to the wheel rotation direction are considered. The algorithms for automatic formation, reconfiguration and motion control for a wheel-configuration mechatronic-modular robot with walking sensory platform are being developed. The approaches of using bulletin board mechanisms to develop the means of behavior planning and interaction coordination of the autonomous self-reconfigurable robots are being discussed. The results of experimental research and computer simulation are presented, confirming the efficiency of the presented algorithms.