Connection mechanisms are critical to modular reconfigurable systems. The ModLock manual connection system is both fast to attach/detach and strong. This low cost, low profile connection system has been demonstrated on a variety of robot configurations including legged walkers, flying quadrotors and wheeled robots.

Introduction

One of the key features of a modular reconfigurable robot is its ability to adapt its morphology to the task required.
While the modular robotics community has mostly focused on this feature by furthering self-reconfiguration mechanisms to enable the robot to reconfigure itself, we believe there is also value in fast manual reconfiguration to make modular robots practical and useful in the field with humans present.

Hardware

Specification	Value
Length	60 mm
Width	60mm
Thickness (Male + Female)	7.6 (6 + 1.6) mm
Connection Time	< 7 s
Disconnection Time	< 3.25
Max Tension	2.2 kN
Max Bending	39.5 Nm
Max Torsion	15 Nm
Weight	80 g

 

Movies

Publications
[ModLock.pdf]

• [2012,conference] bibtex
  J. Davey, J. Sastra, M. Piccoli, and M. Yim, "ModLock: A Manual Connector for Reconfigurable Modular Robots," in Proc. of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal, 2012, pp. 3217-3222.
  @conference{JD:JS:MP:MY:12, title={ModLock: A Manual Connector for Reconfigurable Modular Robots},
  author={J. Davey and J. Sastra and M. Piccoli and M. Yim},
  booktitle={Proc. of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
  year={2012},
  month={October 7-12},
  url={modlabupenn.org/wp-content/uploads/ModLock.pdf},
  address={Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal},
  pages={3217-3222}
}