@conference {Liang2022,
	title = {Energy Sharing Mechanism for a Freeform Robotic System - FreeBOT},
	booktitle = {2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
	year = {2022},
	pages = {4232{\textendash}4238},
	publisher = {IEEE},
	organization = {IEEE},
	address = {Philadelphia, PA, USA},
	abstract = {Energy sharing in modular self-reconfigurable robots ensures the energy balance of the modules, thus allowing the system to work sustainably. This paper proposes an energy sharing mechanism for a novel modular self-reconfigurable robot that allows free connections among modules, termed as FreeBOT, such that each FreeBOT can share energy with peers through surface contact. Corresponding energy sharing rules are proposed to achieve an energy sharing network structure without invalid components. As alternative choices, several types of networks subjected to the above requirements are provided, which also maximize the number of FreeBOTs joining to share energy. We implement and test the prototype of the energy sharing mechanism on FreeBOT. The experimental results show that the mechanism can effectively achieve energy sharing among FreeBOTs.},
	keywords = {Automation, Prototypes, Robots},
	isbn = {978-1-7281-9682-4},
	doi = {10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9811860},
	author = {Guanqi Liang and Yuxiao Tu and Lijun Zong and Junfeng Chen and Tin Lun Lam}
}
