Modular re-configurable robot drives

We propose a modular platform for wheeled mobile robots that utilises a 6-edge honey-comb prism as its basic building block to realize robot drives of diverse geometry. In terms of functionality, we designed a specific wheel suspension for a drive-module comb that can utilise both, a standard wheel or a Mecanum wheel. A quick-lock interconnection mechanism for the comb modules allows us to quickly configure/reconfigure various robot drives and enables us to realise autonomous wheeled robots with the ability to connect to other robots or even to reconfigure the robot´s geometry. This configuration capability offers many interesting opportunities for robotics research since we can adapt a robot in terms of its kinematic functionality, payload and size.