# Modular Robotic Design and Reconfiguring Path Planning
## 5 Conclusions  
The reconfiguring modular robot can reconfigure and combine modules according to different task requirements, and the robot is highly versatile and expandable. Self-reconfiguring robots are gaining more and more attention and applications due to their unique advantages, especially in the field of automotive manufacturing. Modular robots are applied to work properly in harsh environments, such as vacuum welding, high-temperature heat treatment, forging, and stamping, etc. The application of modular robots effectively reduces human involvement and fully ensures work safety. It is an important research direction for the future industrial field. The study of the reconfiguring robot is vital technical support for future intelligent manufacturing. In this paper, the module and configuration scheme design, robotic kinematics analysis, and module path planning in the reconfiguration platform of the reconfiguring robot are studied in depth.  
1. In this paper, the configuration design of different reconfigured robotic configurations is based on the multilevel theory of mechanical modules. A kinematic analysis based on a fully functional robot is performed to establish the D-H parameters of the robot, which lays the mathematical foundation for the later paper.
2. We perform the construction and mathematical model description of the module reconfiguration platform and define the movement priority and collision avoidance guidelines for modules in the reconfiguration platform. An innovative path planning method based on the module reconfiguration platform is proposed to ensure that the robot can reconfigure its configuration according to the requirements of different operations.
3. Simulation verification and analysis of the proposed module's reconfiguration path planning method in this paper. MATLAB simulates the cooperative path planning of two different functional modules to verify the rationality of the obstacle avoidance criterion and collision-free path planning. In addition, we analyze the collaborative planning efficiency of the reconfigured platform based on the configurations with different DOF and finally verify the advantages of the module reconfiguration planning method over the traditional ant colony algorithms through various aspects.  
In this paper, the research on reconfiguring robots focuses on the module's structure and configuration scheme design, path planning method, etc. At this stage, the following aspects can be further investigated for reconfiguring robots.  
1. The design of a robotic configuration scheme can also fully consider the advantages of parallel mechanisms or series-parallel hybrid mechanisms to improve the flexibility of the robotic configuration.
2. This article considers the reconfiguration path planning research in the two-dimensional plane, and additionally, the obstacle avoidance and path planning research in the three-dimensional environment should also be considered.
3. Research the module's control strategy and integrate multiple algorithms to fully use the advantages of different algorithms and effectively improve reconfiguration efficiency.  
Conceptualization, Y.D. and C.-F.X.; methodology, Y.D. and Z.-X.L.; software, Z.-X.L.; validation, Y.D. and Z.-L.L.; investigation, C.-F.X., W.-Y.Q. and Q.-H.Z.; writing--original draft preparation, C.-F.X.; writing--review and editing, Y.D. and Z.-L.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
The study is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52075134); Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province of China (Grant No. LH2019E062); Postdoctoral Scientific Research Developmental Fund of Heilongjiang Province of China (Grant No. LBH-Q20097); Fundamental Research Foundation for Universities of Heilongjiang Province, China (LGYC2018 JC040).