Electrical Specification

1. Module types: in order to guide the manufacture of modules regarding electric specifications, modules must belong to one of these electrical patterns:

Name	Description
Expansible of order N	This module receive electrical energy from other modules, and will provide electrical connection to N other modules (that must be mechanically connected to it)
Terminal	This module receives electrical energy from other modules, but does not provide electrical connection to other modules
Initial	This module will generate electrical energy to other modules. In this case it will also be expansible of order N.

1. Standard electrical plug: the standard plug is the only allowed electrical connection for modules.
2. Allowed electrical connections:Each module is allowed to connect only to the plug provided by the immediately previous module, and must provide a fully functional electric plug to the next module(s), except in the case of a “terminal” type module;
3. Power: the maximum power available to the robot is 2.400W;
4. Voltage: all robot modules will receive the same standard voltage: 48V. The module must internally transform this voltage according to its own needs;
5. Current: the maximum allowed current for the whole robot is: 50 A. Since a “expansible” type module can be connected to a unknown number of other modules, all expansible module wires must be dimensioned to attend the whole robot electrical requirement. Terminal type modules wires are allowed to be dimensioned according their own needs.
6. Visual identification: Module current and voltage requirements must be clearly identified (physically written) in the module in order to allow people to visually inspect and evaluate the possible insertion of this module in the main robot (composed by other modules) while replacing robot parts;
7. Wires and cables position: the allowed positions of module’s wires and cables will depend on the type of the physical position of the module in the robot (see mechanical requirements).
   1. For “connected “modules: If the module is of the “connected” type, all wires and cables (and also module’s sensors and actuators) must mechanically fit the robot module;
   2. For “internal” modules: if a module A is internal to a module B, some of the A module’s sensors, actuators and wires are allowed to be external to the module A. In this case, all wires (and also sensors and actuators) of module A must mechanically fit module B.