RoFICoM - First Open-Hardware Connector for Metamorphic Robots
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8968167/media#media |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IROS40897.2019.8968167 |
| Keywords | RoFI; metamorphic robots; connector |
| Description | We present RoFICoM, a new retractable connection device that allows for mechanical, electric, and data communication connection between separable robotic modules. The device is intentionally designed to be used in lattice-type metamorphic robots, however, its applicability is much wider. The main novelty of our solution lies primarily in a new unique flat design and spatial compactness of the connector. With a flat connector, much more space is left for the body of a robotic module in the structure. Moreover, the connector is also fully self-contained device with well defined mechanical, electrical and data interfaces, hence it can be easily embedded in various robotic solutions. Our RoFICoM connector is easy to produce, it is open-hardware and free for non-commercial use. In the paper, we give construction details and report on a couple of experiments we performed to demonstrate key features of the connection achieved with two RoFICoM devices. |
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