Abstract: Snake cube is a kind of modular mechanism composed of 27 identical cube modules connected in series. Based on the comprehensive analysis of the modular reconfigurable mechanism-snake cube, the study of geometry description, interference detection, kinematics calculation and equivalent variation of mechanism are emphatically studied. The geometry description of cube module is accomplished by employing the Clifford algebra. The angle sequence of target configuration is obtained from inverse kinematics according to the constraint relationship among modules during the movement. Due to the special geometric shape of modules, flexible-joint equivalent replacement is used to implement the movement of achieving the target configuration. An interference detection algorithm on the basis of Clifford algebra is proposed to effectively detect the modular interference during the movement. A new expression of discrete movement-motion sequence combined with exponential formula for kinematics calculation is presented. Simulations are performed to verify the validity of our reconfiguration theory, and the equivalent simplification of mechanism for special configuration is achieved based on the analysis of simulation results.

Key words: Configuration transformation, Interference detection, Modular reconfigurable mechanism, Motion sequence