Study on a Novel Link-type Shape Shifting Robot

A novel link-type shape shifting structure has been developed. It can change its shape to adapt to the environment and the task if need. The shape shifting modular robot has a novel link type modularized structure. Each module of the robot has the components such as the driving body component, the link arm and the offset joints. The offset joints have been proposed in the novel mechanism to improve the relative motion space between the adjacent modules. A tracked link-type shape shifting robot has been designed. Metamorphic experiment and unstructured environment experiment have shown high flexibility and mobility of the robot