Paper Info
Title
RT-Mover: a rough terrain mobile robot with a simple leg-wheel hybrid mechanism
Abstract
There is a strong demand in many fields for practical robots, such as a porter robot and a personal mobility robot, that can move over rough terrain while carrying a load horizontally. We have developed a robot, called RT-Mover, which shows adequate mobility performance on targeted types of rough terrain. It has four drivable wheels and two leg-like axles but only five active shafts. A strength of this robot is that it realizes both a leg mode and a wheel mode in a simple mechanism. In this paper, the mechanical design concept is discussed. With an emphasis on minimizing the number of drive shafts, a mechanism is designed for a four-wheeled mobile body that is widely used in practical locomotive machinery. Also, strategies for moving on rough terrain are proposed. The kinematics, stability, and control of RT-Mover are also described in detail. Some typical cases of rough terrain for wheel mode and leg mode are selected, and the robot's ability of locomotion is assessed through simulations and experiments. In each case, the robot is able to move over rough terrain while maintaining the horizontal orientation of its platform.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1177/0278364911405697
The International Journal of Robotics Research
Keywords
Field
DocType
adequate mobility performance,rough terrain mobile robot,leg mode,drivable wheel,practical locomotive machinery,porter robot,simple leg-wheel hybrid mechanism,personal mobility robot,wheel mode,simple mechanism,practical robot,rough terrain,motion control,mobile robot,mechanism,mobility,stability,kinematics,mechanism design
Motion control,Kinematics,Simulation,Control theory,Personal mobility,Terrain,Robot kinematics,Control engineering,Robot,Axle,Mobile robot,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
30
13
0278-3649
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
18
1.53
16
Authors
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Shuro Nakajima14511.54