Maya Blend Shape + Animation Snapshot
If you want to show different configurations of your unit, you can model the two extreme states, (you can see in the image below how Francesca is using Blend and Snapshot in her project), and use Blend in Maya. You can find it in Deform, Create Blend Shape, then go to, Animation Editors, Blend Shape.
And if you want to have the configurations in between the two extreme states, you can use Animation Snapshot that copies the geometry of an animated object, many times you want.
You can find it in Animate, Create animation Snapshot, and you can have how many frozen geometry you want.
