CoBoLD — A bonding mechanism for modular self-reconfigurable mobile robots

Author

Liedke, Jens ; Wörn, Heinz

Author_Institution

Inst. for Process Control & Robot., Karlsruhe Inst. of Technol. - KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany

fYear

2011

Firstpage

2025

Lastpage

2030

Abstract

Within this paper, CoBoLD - short for Cone Bolt Locking Device - a bonding mechanism for modular self-reconfigurable autonomous mobile robots is presented. The docking unit is used to physically connect modular robots and/or toolboxes in order to form complex structures and robotic organisms. CoBoLD is specially designed to combine essential features like genderlessness, symmetry, high stiffness, integrated force sensors and electrical contacts, while still using a simple and low cost, easy to manufacture setup. Next to a detailed description of CoBoLDs assembly, first trails and their results are shown in this paper. CoBoLD is used at several different robotic platforms and toolboxes within the EU founded projects SYMBRION and REPLICATOR.

Keywords

elasticity; force sensors; mobile robots; robotic assembly; CoBoLD assembly; EU founded projects; REPLICATOR project; SYMBRION project; bonding mechanism; cone bolt locking device; docking unit; electrical contacts; force sensors; genderlessness features; modular self-reconflgurable autonomous mobile robots; robotic organisms; robotic platforms; stiffness features; symmetry features; Bonding; Contacts; Fasteners; Mobile robots; Sensors; Springs; Bonding Mechanism; Docking Unit; Modular Robots; Self-Reconfiguration;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), 2011 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Karon Beach, Phuket

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-2136-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ROBIO.2011.6181589

Filename

6181589