Planning the reconfiguration of grounded truss structures with truss climbing robots that carry truss elements

In this paper we describe an optimal reconfiguration planning algorithm that morphs a grounded truss structure of known geometry into a new geometry. The plan consists of a sequence of paths to move truss elements to their new locations that generate the new truss geometry. The trusses are grounded and remain connected at all time. Intuitively, the algorithm grows gradually the new truss structure from the old one. The truss elements are rigid bars joined with 18-way connectors. The paper also introduces the design of a truss-climbing robot that can execute the plan.