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Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robots

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Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science

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Glossary

Bonding mechanism:

A mechanism that allows modules to attach to other modules. Self-reconfigurable modules have the ability to selectively make and break attachments to other modules.

Configuration:

The connectivity arrangement of modules in a system which describes which modules is physically attached and adjacent to which.

Configuration recognition:

The process of automatically determining a modular robot’s connectivity arrangement.

Decentralized control:

A control system in which the controller elements are not central in location (like the brain) but are distributed throughout the system with each component sub-system controlled by one or more controllers.

Enumeration algorithm:

A routine that counts and displays the number of unique, non-isomorphic configurations of a given modular robotic system.

Global bus:

Communication setup such that when one unit talks all other units can listen, as opposed to neighbor to neighbor communication in which communication occurs only...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Michael Park & Mark Yim

  2. Amazon Web Services, Arlington, VA, USA

    Paul White

  3. Robust.AI, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Jimmy Sastra

Authors
  1. Michael Park
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  2. Mark Yim
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  3. Paul White
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  4. Jimmy Sastra
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Yim .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ramtech Ltd., Larkspur, CA, USA

    Robert A. Meyers

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Park, M., Yim, M., White, P., Sastra, J. (2020). Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robots. In: Meyers, R.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_334-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_334-5

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