Connecting and disconnecting for chain reconfiguration of modular self reconfigurable robot

Modular self-reconfigurable robot (MSRR) with many degrees of freedom and flexible reconfigurations can acclimatize itself to the change of environment. Chain reconfiguration system are capable of be reconfigured to form arbitrary chain-based topologies. This reconfiguration requires connecting and disconnecting from one point of the chain. So accurate movements of modules are needed, but this may be extremely difficult because of the internal errors in the system (especially with large numbers of modules). This paper describes the design of a kind of MSRR with chain reconfiguration and three phases of its docking process. Some methods are presented for the implements of these phases.