CN103942937B - A communication device and communication method for a modular self-reconfigurable robot - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses communicator and the communication means thereof of a kind of modularized self-reorganization robot, described system includes some functional modules, each side of each functional module is provided with range of signal between the side wireless transceiver of side wireless transceiver and each side and does not covers, and functional module is additionally provided with control terminal wireless transceiver and microcontroller；Side wireless transceiver uses different operating frequency with controlling terminal wireless transceiver.Functional module is connected by side, and the side wireless transceiver range of signal connecting side covers mutually；The control terminal wireless transceiver of some functional modules has and only one of which is in running order.Can either realize that modularized self-reorganization robot is wireless and telecommunication, be capable of again the conjuncted configuration identification of modularized self-reorganization robot；Control communication simultaneously for whole modularized self-reorganization robot does not interfere with each other with the control communication to each functional module.

Description

A communication device and communication method for a modular self-reconfigurable robot

technical field

The invention relates to a communication device of a modular self-reconfigurable robot and a communication method thereof.

Background technique

The modular self-reconfigurable robot system is composed of several functional modules with simple structure and limited resources. Multiple functional modules are assembled into various joints through connection mechanisms, such as snake joints, tripod joints, and quadruped joints. body shape. At present, the communication systems of modular self-reconfigurable robots mainly include CAN bus, RS485 bus, infrared communication, Bluetooth communication and wireless sensor network and other communication methods. CAN bus and RS485 bus belong to the wired mode, which cannot realize the communication between separate functional modules or different conjoined units; although infrared communication and Bluetooth communication solve the communication problem between different conjoined units, the communication distance is relatively short, while the infrared communication system It is greatly affected by environmental factors; wireless sensor networks provide multi-hop ad hoc networking, but due to the uncontrollable topology of nodes, it will cause problems such as high communication energy consumption and communication channel congestion. With rich conjoined forms, different conjoined forms have a variety of motion gaits, and the modular self-reconfigurable robot exhibits powerful movement capabilities in complex environments. Being able to change its shape according to different environments and tasks is the main advantage of modular self-reconfigurable robots. In order to make the modular self-reconfigurable robot conjoined exert its powerful motion ability and realize its deformation function, firstly, the modular self-reconfigurable robot system can recognize the current configuration of the conjoined body, and then select the movement gait and complete the transformation according to the conjoined configuration. Transformation planning. At present, the configuration recognition methods are all based on the communication system of the self-reconfigurable robot, such as CAN bus and infrared communication. However, due to the uncontrollable network topology of Bluetooth communication and wireless sensor network, it is impossible to realize the conjoined configuration recognition of modular self-reconfigurable robots.

Contents of the invention

Purpose of the invention: The purpose of the present invention is to provide a communication device and a communication method for a modular self-reconfigurable robot in view of the deficiencies in the prior art, which solves the problem of not only satisfying wireless and long-distance communication, but also realizing modular self-weight. The technical problem of conjoined configuration recognition of structural robots.

Technical solution: In order to achieve the purpose of the present invention, a communication device for a modular self-reconfigurable robot according to the present invention, the modular self-reconfigurable robot consists of several functional modules, each side of each functional module is provided with a side wireless Transceiver and the signal ranges between the side wireless transceivers on each side do not cover each other, the functional module is also equipped with a control terminal wireless transceiver and a microcontroller; the side wireless transceiver and the control terminal wireless transceiver use different operating frequencies . The functional modules are connected through the sides, and the signal ranges of the side wireless transceivers connected to the sides cover each other; one and only one of the control terminal wireless transceivers of the connected functional modules is in a working state.

Preferably, in order to allow the device to distinguish side wireless transceivers simply and effectively, each side wireless transceiver is provided with a MAC communication address that is different from the MAC communication addresses of other side wireless transceivers.

Preferably, in order to allow the device to distinguish each functional module simply and effectively and to ensure communication security between functional modules, each functional module is provided with a flag that is different from the binary flags of other functional modules. The flag bit is stored in the FLASH of the microcontroller of the function module.

As a preference, in order to make the side wireless transceiver and the control terminal wireless transceiver better not interfere with each other and reduce costs, the side wireless transceiver adopts a 433MHz wireless transceiver, and the control terminal wireless transceiver adopts a 2.4GHz wireless transceiver.

In order to achieve the purpose of the present invention, a communication method of a modular self-reconfigurable robot according to the present invention includes the following steps:

(1) The microcontroller of each functional module detects the connection status between the functional module and other functional modules through the side wireless transceiver on each side; if other functional modules are connected, the flag bit and It is stored in the side wireless transceiver connected to the side;

(2) Set the only working microcontroller that controls the wireless transceiver of the terminal as the central controller; send the connection information stored in each functional module in step (1) to the central controller;

(3) The central controller performs data fusion of all connection information to generate the configuration matrix expression of the modular self-reconfigurable robot;

(4) Match the configuration matrix expression in step (3) with the model in the existing modular self-reconfigurable robot conjoined configuration library to obtain the current modular self-reconfigurable robot conjoined configuration, And obtain the corresponding conjoined motion control.

Beneficial effects: Compared with the prior art, the present invention can not only realize the wireless and long-distance communication of the modular self-reconfigurable robot, but also realize the conjoined configuration recognition of the modular self-reconfigurable robot; The control communication of the structural robot and the control communication of each functional module do not interfere with each other.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the hardware framework of the modular self-reconfigurable robot functional module of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a modular self-reconfigurable robot functional module of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the connection of the functional modules of the modular self-reconfigurable robot of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a communication flowchart of the modular self-reconfigurable robot of the present invention.

detailed description

The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

As shown in Figure 1, a single functional module consists of a microcontroller, a 2.4GHz wireless transceiver, and four 433MHz wireless transceivers; The controller can be used as the central controller of the modular self-reconfigurable robot to send and receive commands.

As shown in Figure 2, functional module one 1 is a square structure, and its four sides are respectively equipped with 433MHz wireless transceiver eleven 11, 433MHz wireless transceiver twelve 12, 433MHz wireless transceiver thirteen 13 and 433MHz wireless transceiver 14, 14, through the special design of the antenna and the adjustment of the chip transmission power to control the signal coverage of the 433MHz wireless transceiver, so that the 433MHz wireless transceiver eleven 11, 433MHz wireless transceiver twelve 12, 433MHz wireless transceiver thirteen 13 and The signal coverage areas of the 433MHz wireless transceivers 14 14 do not overlap with each other, so their communications do not affect each other.

As shown in Figure 3, the modular self-reconfigurable robot is composed of functional module 1, functional module 2, functional module 3, functional module 4, and functional module 5. The above functional modules are all square structures; functional module 1 The four sides of 1 are respectively provided with 433MHz wireless transceiver eleven 11, 433MHz wireless transceiver twelve 12, 433MHz wireless transceiver thirteen 13 and 433MHz wireless transceiver fourteen 14, and the four sides of functional module two 2 There are 433MHz wireless transceiver twenty-one 21, 433MHz wireless transceiver twenty-two 22, 433MHz wireless transceiver twenty-three 23, and 433MHz wireless transceiver twenty-four 24 on the side, and four sides of functional module three 3 433MHz wireless transceiver thirty-one 31, 433MHz wireless transceiver thirty-two 32, 433MHz wireless transceiver thirty-three 33 and 433MHz wireless transceiver thirty-four 34 are respectively arranged on the four sides of the functional module four 4 There are respectively 433MHz wireless transceivers 4141, 433MHz wireless transceivers 4242, 433MHz wireless transceivers 4343 and 433MHz wireless transceivers 4444, and the four sides of the functional module 55 are respectively There are 433MHz wireless transceiver fifty-one 51 , 433MHz wireless transceiver fifty-two 52 , 433MHz wireless transceiver fifty-three 53 and 433MHz wireless transceiver fifty-four 54 . Functional module five 5 is connected to functional module one 1, functional module two 2, functional module three 3 and functional module four 4 through four sides; the 433MHz wireless transceiver 5151 of functional module five 5 is connected to functional module one 1 The 433MHz wireless transceiver 1313 signals of the functional module 55 cover each other so that communication can be carried out, and the 433MHz wireless transceiver 2424 signals of the functional module 22 cover each other so that communication can be carried out , the 433MHz wireless transceiver fifty-three 53 of the functional module five 5 and the 433MHz wireless transceiver thirty-one 31 of the functional module three 3 cover each other so as to communicate, the 433MHz wireless transceiver fifty-four 54 of the functional module five 5 and the The 433MHz wireless transceivers of function module four 4 cover each other so that they can communicate; the 433MHz wireless transceivers on the side of function module one 1, function module two 2, function module three 3 and function module four 4 are not connected will be closed so that the network topology of the modular self-reconfigurable robotic consortium is consistent with the mechanical connection topology of the functional modules.

As shown in Figure 4, on the basis of the connection of the above functional modules, first check whether the functional module is connected to other functional modules, and if connected, read the flag of the functional module connected to it and the identification number of the 433MHz wireless transceiver on the side connected to it and store them; then when all functional modules are detected, they are transmitted to the central controller; the central controller performs data fusion of all connection information to generate the configuration matrix expression of the modular self-reconfigurable robot; the above configuration matrix The expressions are matched with the models in the existing modular self-reconfigurable robot conjoined configuration library to obtain the current conjoined configuration of the modular self-reconfigurable robot, and obtain the corresponding conjoined motion control.

Claims (5)

1. A communication device of a modular self-reconfigurable robot, the modular self-reconfigurable robot is made up of several functional modules, including a control terminal wireless transceiver and a microcontroller, and is characterized in that each side of each functional module is designed There are side wireless transceivers and the signal ranges between the side wireless transceivers do not cover each other; The side wireless transceiver and the control terminal wireless transceiver use different operating frequencies; The functional modules are connected by the side and only the signal range of the side wireless transceiver connected to the side covers each other; Only one of the control terminal wireless transceivers of several connected functional modules is in working state. 2. The communication device of a modular self-reconfigurable robot as claimed in claim 1, wherein each side wireless transceiver is provided with a MAC communication address and is different from the MAC of other side wireless transceivers contact address. 3. The communication device of a modular self-reconfigurable robot as claimed in any one of claims 2, wherein each functional module is provided with an ID number and is different from the ID numbers of other functional modules, the The ID number is stored in the FLASH of the microcontroller of the function module. 4. The communication device of a modular self-reconfigurable robot according to claim 1, wherein the side wireless transceiver adopts a 433MHz wireless transceiver, and the control terminal wireless transceiver adopts a 2.4GHz wireless transceiver. 5. The communication method of the communication device of modular self-reconfigurable robot as claimed in claim 1, it is characterized in that, comprising the following steps: (1) The microcontroller of each functional module detects the connection status between the functional module and other functional modules through the side wireless transceiver on each side; It is stored in the side wireless transceiver connected to the side; (2) Set the microcontroller of the only control terminal wireless transceiver in the working state as the central controller; send the connection information stored by each functional module in step (1) to the central controller; (3) The central controller performs data fusion of all connection information to generate the configuration matrix expression of the modular self-reconfigurable robot; (4) Match the configuration matrix expression in step (3) with the model in the existing modular self-reconfigurable robot conjoined configuration library to obtain the current modular self-reconfigurable robot conjoined configuration, And obtain the corresponding conjoined motion control.