Modular configurable robot, corresponding method and computer program product

A modular configurable robot, comprising a set of robot modules, each robot module in the set of robot modules comprising:

• a coupling mechanism arranged to at least one end of said robot module configured for coupling with a corresponding coupling mechanism of an adjacent module to form an electromechanical interface, said coupling mechanism including a mechanical coupling member and an electrical coupling member, said electrical coupling member being configured to form an operative electrical connection with a corresponding electrical coupling member of said adjacent module upon coupling of the respective mechanical coupling members, said operative electrical connection comprising a network communication signal connection and a power supply connection, said electrical coupling member comprising an electric orientation signaling arrangement configured to form upon said coupling an orientation electrical signal which value depends on the relative orientation of the coupling of said robot module with respect to the adjacent module,
• at least one integrated circuit comprising:
• i) a microcontroller circuit portion comprising a non-volatile memory circuit portion configured to store a unique identification code of the robot module and at least one set of I/O ports coupled to said electrical coupling member to receive said orientation electrical signal, said microcontroller circuit portion being configured to obtain from said orientation electric signal an information on a relative orientation of the coupling of said robot module with respect to the adjacent module,
• ii) a communication network slave module comprising a set of communication ports and a slave module memory set of registers configured to store state values of said communication ports, the communication network slave module being coupled to the microcontroller circuit portion to exchange signals, wherein one of said communication ports is pre-designated as input communication port and wherein said ports of the set of communication ports are configured to be in either an open or closed state as a function of a respective port state value stored in said slave module memory set of registers,
• wherein said modular configurable robot further comprises a master robot module comprising a master network communication module coupled in signal exchange relationship to said communication network slave modules to form a master slave communication network topology, in particular a EtherCAT network,
• a server device configured to host a centralized robot module database or lookup table comprising a set of records containing robot module parameters, in particular functional, kinematic and inertial and semantic parameters, accessible by a respective unique identification code,
• said master network communication module being configured to access
• said communication network slave module to retrieve the respective unique identification code, and
• said centralized robot module database or lookup table to obtain a corresponding record containing robot module parameters, and
• said microcontroller circuit portion to retrieve said information of a relative orientation of the coupling of said robot module with respect to the adjacent module.