Abstract
This paper presents a time-efficient, task-based configuration synthesis algorithm for modular robot manipulators. One of the main challenges in modular manipulators is to find possible combinations of modules that are able to complete given tasks while avoiding obstacles in the environment. Most studies on modular robots focus on obtaining combinations of modules to achieve a given task without considering the required path planning in an environment with obstacles. In contrast to previous works, we present a configuration synthesis method for modular manipulators, considering collision detection and path planning in task space. Our simulations show that our approach finds possible combinations with reduced computational time compared to previous techniques. © 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.