可自我重組的模組機器人之硬體與重組規劃演算法設計

Abstract

一個可自我重組的模組機器人系統裡擁有多個模組機器人，且這些模組機器人具有相同的功能和特性，譬如每個模組機器人具有相同的形狀、尺寸、計算能力、連接機構等等。當模組機器人系統在不同的環境下需要藉由改變系統的型態來去適應並執行任務，此時系統裡的模組機器人會驅動自身的連接機構去和其他模組機器人進行連接或分離，以達到整體系統型態的改變。在這個情形下，如何決定模組機器人移動的先後順序和驅動器的控制就是需要考慮的議題。 在本論文中，我們設計了模組機器人的硬體結構並且製作了原型。而重組的規劃運用到不同的距離函數來定義兩個形態之間的距離。根據這些不同的距離函數和A*演算法，本文提出不同方法來找出從起始型態變成最終型態的過程中最佳且可實行的重組順序。 在本論文的後面章節裡，我們利用數學運算去分析所提出方法的時間複雜度，並且利用這些方法針對不同模組機器人個數的系統進行模擬實驗，紀錄並呈現不同的模擬結果。最後再根據模擬結果去比較不同方法的執行效率和驗證時間複雜度分析的正確性。

A self-reconfigurable modular robotic system consists of several modular robots which have the same function and characteristic such as shape, size, computational power, connecting mechanism, etc. If the modular robotic system needs changing the configuration to adapt to different environments and perform various tasks, the modular robots actuate connectors to connect with other modular robots or disconnect from others to change overall structure of the system. The determination of the sequence of moves and the control over actuators both are considerable topics in this circumstance. In this thesis, we design the hardware of the modular robot and the prototype is fabricated. The different metrics are used to define the distance function between the initial configuration and the final configuration. Based on these metrics and A* algorithm, the methods are proposed to find out the optimal reconfiguration and the feasible reconfiguration from a decided initial configuration to a desired final configuration for the modular robotic system. At the end of thesis, the time complexity analysis of these proposed methods will be derived mathematically in detail. Some cases with different number of modules are also simulated and the statistical data of simulation results will be shown. Finally, performance of these methods will be compared and presented by examining these results.