Poster: 3D Docking In Metamorphic Robots
National Conference on Robotics, Naval Research Lab, Washington DC 2002

?	Authors: Professors
?	Prof Wei-Min Shen (Information Sciences Institute)

?	Authors: Research Assistants (alphabetical)
?	Rajiv Garg (System Simulation, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence)

?	Funding provided by: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA)

Abstract
Small sized self-configurable autonomous robots have been attracting more interest because of boost in their capabilities as a result of higher performance and higher capacity. Capabilities of these meta-morphic robots have attracted interests of researchers working in the areas ranging from outer-space to under-grounds. 

When considering applications like construction in an unmanned and uncontrolled environment or environment adaptive needs, it becomes important for a self-reconfigurable robot to be autonomous. An autonomous robot of smaller size is constrained with the limited power supply, processor speed and storage capacity. In this paper we address the key element of re-configuration – 3D docking under limited resources. We used the in-house Configurable Robot (CONRO) for the study in this paper, which evaluates the patterns of lights and sensor zones to create an efficient mathematical model for 3D docking.