Reconfiguration planning for heterogeneous cellular space robot

As a new form of space system construction and space operation, cellular space robot has the advantages of standardization, reconfiguration and system flexibility. The system flexibility depends on the flexibility of the configuration of the cellular space robot. In order to accomplish different tasks, cellular space robot needs to change its configuration by self-reconfiguration. However, since the variety types of cells, heterogeneous self-configuration problem of the cellular space robot constitutes a formidable technical challenge. In the process of self-reconfiguration, frequent cell disassembly operations will waste time and might bring additional risks. To solve the above-mentioned problems, a reconfiguration algorithm for heterogeneous cellular space robot is proposed to reduce the times of cell disassembly operations. Firstly, all cells for reconfiguration are divided into different levels. Then the cells are moved to the corresponding level of the intermediate configuration. Finally, the cells in the intermediate configuration are reconstructed to form the target configuration. The applicability of this algorithm is proven. The amount of cell disassembly of this algorithm is O(n). 3D simulations validate that the algorithm can realize the self-reconfiguration of the cellular space robot.