A new meta-module design for efficient reconfiguration of modular robots

We propose a new meta-module design for two important classes of modular robots. The new meta-modules are three-dimensional, robust and compact, improving on the previously proposed ones. One of them applies to so-called edge-hinged modular robot units, such as M-TRAN, SuperBot, SMORES, UBot, PolyBot and CKBot, while the other one applies to so-called central-point-hinged modular robot units, which include Molecubes and Roombots. The new meta-modules use the rotational degrees of freedom of these two types of robot units in order to expand and contract, as to double or halve their length in each of the two directions of its three dimensions, therefore simulating the capabilities of Crystalline and Telecube robots. Furthermore, in the edge-hinged case we prove that the novel meta-module can also perform the scrunch, relax and transfer moves that are necessary in any tunneling-based reconfiguration algorithm for expanding/contracting modular robots such as Crystalline and Telecube. This implies that the use of meta-meta-modules is unnecessary, and that currently existing efficient reconfiguration algorithms can be applied to a much larger set of modular robots than initially intended. We also prove that the size of the new meta-modules is optimal and cannot be further reduced. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10514-021-09977-6.