Distributed Control of the Center of Mass of a Modular Robot

Mark Moll, Peter Will, Maks Krivokon, and Wei-Min Shen. Distributed Control of the Center of Mass of a Modular Robot. In Proc. 2006 IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Beijing, China, October 2006.

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Abstract

We present a distributed controller for the center of mass of a modular robot. This is useful for locomotion of a modular robot over uneven and unknown terrain. By controlling the center of mass, a robot can prevent itself from falling over. We present a distributed and decentralized algorithm that computes the mass properties of the robot. Additionally, each module also computes the mass properties of the modules that are directly or indirectly connected to each of its connectors. With this information, each module can independently steer the center of mass towards a desired position by adjusting its joint positions. We present simulation results that show the feasibility of the approach.

BibTeX Entry

@InProceedings{	  moll2006distributed-control-of-the-center-of-mass,
  abstract	= {We present a distributed controller for the center of mass
		  of a modular robot. This is useful for locomotion of a
		  modular robot over uneven and unknown terrain. By
		  controlling the center of mass, a robot can prevent itself
		  from falling over. We present a distributed and
		  decentralized algorithm that computes the mass properties
		  of the robot. Additionally, each module also computes the
		  mass properties of the modules that are directly or
		  indirectly connected to each of its connectors. With this
		  information, each module can independently steer the center
		  of mass towards a desired position by adjusting its joint
		  positions. We present simulation results that show the
		  feasibility of the approach.},
  address	= {Beijing, China},
  author	= {Mark Moll and Peter Will and Maks Krivokon and Wei-Min
		  Shen},
  booktitle	= iros-06,
  month		= oct,
  title		= {Distributed Control of the Center of Mass of a Modular
		  Robot},
  year		= {2006}
}