DESIGN TRANSFORMATION CARDS FOR RECONFIGURABLE ROBOTICS: CASE STUDY OF AN EXPANDABLE ROBOT FOR CLEANING TASKS

Reconfigurable robotic systems (RRS) have demonstrated their usefulness in various sectors, including surveillance, rescue missions, space exploration, maintenance, and cleaning. However, designing adaptable and flexible robotic systems is challenging, and researchers have developed innovative mechanical designs that can optimize the performance of these systems in different applications. This paper introduces a method for designing a reconfigurable robot using earlier proposed design transformation cards (DTC) that illustrate mechanical mechanisms based on the transformation design theory. These cards serve as a visual tool for ideation and design-by-analogy, enabling designers to explore the best possible combinations of mechanical mechanisms for their robot design. The case study application of the DTC is presented by designing the block of an expandable Tetris-inspired robot named e-Smor phi (expandable-Smorphi) which consists of four units of expandable blocks that can change their dimensions in length and width, allowing for adaptation to different environments in two dimensions. The proposed design has potential application to the cleaning and maintenance industry, where the objective is to be maximizing the area coverage. The paper also describes experiments with the selected prototype, highlighting the reconfiguration in two dimensions while accessing the environment for cleaning and maintenance (CnM) tasks. The limitations and advantages of using DTC are also discussed as insights into the development of new design tools and techniques for reconfigurable robotics, paving the way for further innovation and advancements in the field.