Abstract: A simple but effective configuration synthesis method for reconfigurable robot based on the graph theory is presented. For this purpose, all modules made up of a reconfigurable robot are abstracted the building blocks firstly, thus the mapping between graph and the reconfigurable robot can be established. According to graph theory and the restriction of combination among all modules, all feasible assembly configurations for the reconfigurable robot are enumerated correspondingly. To verify the proposed method, the configuration synthesis of a 4-DOF reconfigurable robot, composed by four modules I.e. a gear-driven module, a rack-driven module, a strap-driven module, and a planar linkage module is investigated, and all six feasible assembly configurations corresponding to the robot is achieved. As a result, the conceptual design of the reconfigurable robot is accomplished effectively.

Key words: Graph theory, Reconfigurable robot, Robots, Structural synthesis, Synthesis