An Integrated Taxonomy and Critical Review of Module Designs for Serial Reconfigurable Manipulators

Abstract

Modular, reconfigurable, self-reconfigurable and metamorphic robots have already been in research since the last quarter of the previous century however and quite several different module designs have been presented in the relevant literature. As such, these modules need to be taxonomized and critically reviewed in order to form the basis for the design of new modules. The present paper introduces such a taxonomy based on the governing aspects of the modules in the literature and a weighted grading system for their critical review. Fifteen different module designs are examined and graded to identify their suitability for serving as the basis for the design of new modules for a self-metamorphic robotic manipulator system.