ModRED (Modular Robot for Exploration and Discovery)

CAD drawing of the proposed modular robot	First hardware prototype of ModRED
		Videos of simulated motion of ModRED on Webots simulator

Funding: NASA EPSCoR (2011-2014), NASA Nebraska Space Grant Program (Seed Funding 2010-2011)

Co-investigator: Dr. Carl Nelson, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

The objective of the ModRED project is to improve existing techniques for automated exploring of initially unknown or little-known environments such as extra-terrestrial surfaces on the Moon or Mars or terrestrial regions with limited accesibility (e.g., for USAR scenarios). Our proposed solution uses modular self-reconfigurable robots (MSRs) that are composed of multiple, closely interacting modules coupled together to achieve the desired shape and motion of the overall robot. MSRs are particularly attractive for maneuvering in non-uniform and unpredictable surfaces such as extra-terrestrial environments because they can dynamically adapt their gait and shape based on the current operational and environment conditions. Our proposed research plan enhances the state-of-the-art techniques for exploration using MSRs along two major directions. The first direction pursues an advanced design of a highly dexterous MSR called ModRED (Modular Robot for Exploration and Discovery). Unlike previously designed modular robots which have limited mobility in tight spaces due to a maximum possible 3-DOF (degrees of freedom), ModRED has 4-DOF that will allow it to maneuver itself efficiently after encountering various types of obstacles. Our second research direction is to develop technologies to autonomously control the configuration and navigation of ModRED. Previous research in the control of MSRs has mainly been done in a ‘hand-crafted-by-humans’ manner – the movement of every module required to achieve a desired gait for the overall robot is specified a priori using a static ‘gait’ table. Our proposed research attempts to automate these hand-crafted behaviors of the robot by developing novel methodologies that combine control theory-based multi-robot team formation techniques with game theory-based multi-agent coalition formation techniques. We will investigate techniques that allow ModRED to monitor its own performance and dynamically adjust its shape and gait pattern after encountering occlusions in its path, so that it can continue its exploration of the environment efficiently while reducing its energy consumption and the time required to complete the exploration operation. We propose to validate our research results using theoretical analyses, simulation experiments and tests on the physical ModRED robot. The research results can also be easily adapted to a variety of robotic platforms and applied to various other domains such as reconnaissance and patrolling missions for homeland security applications, semi-automated human surgery for medical applications, automated lawn-mowing or cattle herding, or for domestic applications.

Publications and Presentations

2012

• S. G. M. Hossain, C. Nelson and P. Dasgupta “Hardware Design and Testing of ModRED – A Modular Self-reconfigurable Robot System,” (accepted), 2^nd ASME/IEEE International Conference on Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots (REMAR), 2012, Tianjin, China.
• P. Dasgupta, V. Ufimtsev, C. Nelson, and S. G. M. Hossain, "Self-Reconfiguration in Modular Robots using Coalition Games with Uncertainty," (accepted) 11^th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), 2012, Valencia, Spain.
• P. Dasgupta, V. Ufimtsev, and C. Nelson "Dynamic Reconfiguration in Modular Robots using Graph Partitioning,” 122^nd Annual Meeting, Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Lincoln, NE, 2012. (abstract)
• S. G. M. Hossain, C. Nelson and P. Dasgupta “Recent Progress on ModRED – A Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot for Space Exploration,”122^nd Annual Meeting, Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Lincoln, NE, 2012. (abstract)

2011

• P. Dasgupta, V. Ufimtsev, C. Nelson, and S. G. M. Hossain, "Self-Reconfiguration in Modular Robots using Coalition Games with Uncertainty," AAAI Workshop on Autonomous Action Planning for Autonomous Mobile Robots (PAMR) , 2011, pp. 57-63. [pdf]
• K. Chu, C. Nelson and S. G. M. Hossain, "Design of a 4-DOF Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot with Novel Gaits," ASME 2011 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, 2011 (DETC2011-47746) [pdf].
• Z. Ramaekers, P. Dasgupta and C. Nelson, “Dynamically reconfiguring modular robots for efficient maneuverability in initially unknown terrains," 121st Annual Meeting, Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Lincoln, NE, 2011. [abstract].

2010 and earlier

• C. Nelson, K. Chu, P. Dasgupta and Z. Ramaekers, “ModRED: A Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot For Autonomous Extra-terrestrial Exploration and Discovery”, NASA Western Regional Conference, September 2010. [ppt slides].
• C. Nelson, K. Chu and P. Dasgupta, “ModRED: A Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot For Autonomous Extra-terrestrial Exploration and Discovery”, Planetary Rovers Workshop, (co-located with International Conference on Robotics and Automation 2010), Anchorage, AK, 2010.
• P. Dasgupta, “A swarm-based multi-robot system for lunar and Mars surface mapping,” Proceedings of the 119^th Annual Meeting, Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Lincoln, NE, 2009, pp. 24.
• R. Bell, “Multi-agent Swarmed Space Exploration System (MASSES),” Proceedings of the 117^th Annual Meeting, Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Lincoln, NE, 2007, pp. 23.

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