Design and Realization of Multimobile Robot System With Docking Manipulator

This paper presents the design and realization of a multimobile robot system joint locomotion (JL)-2, which features not only a docking and 3D posture-adjusting capability between three robots but also a multifunctional docking gripper. By combining a parallel mechanism and a cam gripper together, this paper develops a docking manipulator, which endows each robot with a simple but forceful grasping capability. Furthermore, the docking manipulator can overcome the possible aligning errors between two robots and interconnect them. A motorized spherical joint will be formed between two docked robots, which will enhance the locomotion flexibility of the whole system. The docking mechanism is discussed in detail, including the docking procedure and analyses of self-aligning ability. A series of experiments not only testify the basic performances of JL-2 but also reveal the limits of current prototype, e. g., the overconstraint connecting pattern, the unbalanced self-aligning performance, etc. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4002719]