Reconfigurable Structure with Extensible Limbs for Adaptive Terrain Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional structural systems, such as robotic vehicles and spacecraft, are unable to adapt to environmental contingencies, leading to system failure due to their fixed configurations and inability to optimize performance in changing conditions.
Innovation Solution
A reconfigurable structure with selectively extensible and retractable limbs, pivotable nodes, and actuators, along with addressable modules for control, allowing the structure to change its form and adapt to environmental changes, utilizing polyhedral frames and various materials like steel, aluminum, and carbon nanostructures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional robotic structures are configured with fixed components for specific tasks, then manufacturing precision and initial performance are improved, but adaptability to environmental contingencies deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic reconfigurability by enabling structural components to change their configuration during operation. The system transitions from static fixed components to dynamically adjustable components that can alter their position, orientation, and connectivity in response to environmental contingencies, thereby resolving the contradiction between manufacturing precision and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The structural system is divided into modular segments that can be independently reconfigured. By segmenting the structure into reconfigurable components connected by joints and actuators, the system achieves both precise manufacturing of individual modules and overall adaptability through their flexible assembly arrangements.
2Productivity
If structural systems use dedicated components for specific tasks, then functional performance is improved, but ability to optimize form and adapt to damage deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing structural components that can perform multiple functions rather than dedicated single-function components. The reconfigurable structure allows the same physical components to serve different functional roles by changing their spatial arrangement and connectivity, enabling the system to optimize form for different tasks and adapt to damage by redistributing functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from static dedicated components to dynamic multi-functional components that can alter their configuration during operation. This enables the structure to optimize its form for current task requirements and adapt when damage occurs by reconfiguring remaining components to perform necessary functions.
3Ease of manufacture
If robotic vehicles are designed with fixed configurations, then ease of manufacture is improved, but operational resilience to terrain variations deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle structure is segmented into standardized modular components that can be manufactured using identical or similar processes. This segmentation maintains ease of manufacture through component standardization while enabling operational resilience by allowing flexible assembly configurations adapted to different terrain conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle incorporates dynamic reconfigurability that allows it to adapt its configuration during operation to match terrain conditions. This dynamic capability provides operational resilience without requiring complex custom manufacturing, as the base components remain standardized while their arrangement becomes adaptable.
4Productivity
If spacecraft have dedicated structural components, then initial mission performance is improved, but ability to repair and continue operation after damage deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The spacecraft structure uses universal multi-functional components that can perform different mission functions by changing their configuration. When damage occurs, these components can be reconfigured to perform alternative functions, enabling repair and continuation of the mission without requiring specialized replacement parts for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements damage recovery by discarding damaged component configurations and recovering functionality through alternative arrangements of remaining components. The reconfigurable structure allows the spacecraft to abandon damaged functional arrangements and reconstruct necessary functions using surviving components in new configurations.
Data Source
AI summary
A reconfigurable structure includes a plurality of selectively extensible and retractable limbs, at least one node pivotably receiving respective ends of at least two limbs, and an actuator associated with each limb for extending and retracting the limb. The structure may further include an addressable module associated with each actuator to control the actuator.