A distributed self-reconfiguration method combining cellular automata and L-systems

Self-reconfiguration of self-reconfigurable robots is a fundamental primitive that can be used as part of higher-lever functionality. A distributed control mechanism is proposed for self-reconfiguration, which uses the Lindenmayer systems (L-systems) for global configuration description and cellular automata for local motion planning. Turtle graphics are taken for structure interpretation of L-systems and provide moving targets for decentralized modules. The modules are led to their final positions using a gradient approach. The mechanism takes a split where distributed locomotion aspects of the control is managed by cellular automata, while global description in L-systems. Turtle interpretations can generate module-level predictions from global description. The convergence of proposed method is verified through simulations.