Autonomous discovery and functional response to topology change in self-reconfigurable robots

Abstract

A self-reconfigurable system is a special type of complex systems that can autonomously rearrange its software and hardware components and adapt its configuration, such as shape, size, formation, structure, or organization, to accomplish difficult missions in dynamic, uncertain, and unanticipated environments. A selfreconfigurable system is typically made from a network of homogeneous or heterogeneous reconfigurable modules (or agents) that can autonomously change their physical or logical connections and rearrange their configurations. © 2006 Springer.