Malleable Robots

Reconfigurable robot systems provide several key potential advantages over traditional robots, including increased task versatility by adapting to better suit tasks, and reduced robot cost due to a smaller total number of modules, such as links and joints. As such, there has been significant research into the development of reconfigurable robots, with the most popular approach utilising modularity as the method of reconfiguration, as this allows for the interchangeability of parts, leading to self-repair [71, 60]. The reconfigurability feature has specifically been of interest in unstructured and unpredictable environments, characterised by changing operating contexts, which take the most advantage from robots that can adapt their shape and operating mode [66]. An alternative approach for the application of reconfigurable robot manipulators can be found in the industrial field of serial manipulators. In an ideal case, a manipulator would be designed with the exact number and configuration of joints necessary for its expected set of tasks [26].