Development of Body Rotation Mechanism for Wheeled Robot to Enhance Trafficability and Overcome Mobility Limitation

Abstract

A wheeled robot operating on various complex terrains with scattered obstacles and steep slopes must be capable of surmounting obstructions and coping with the extreme driving environment. This paper proposes a body rotation mechanism that controls the load distribution on the robot wheel for the robot to surmount rocky obstacles and steadily ascend deformable slopes. This work formulates a robot dynamics model based on the wheel-complex terrain interaction model to analyze the mechanical effect of the proposed body rotation mechanism. Moreover, an optimal body rotation configuration integrating the robot dynamics model and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II is obtained to choose the appropriate body rotation control strategy. The numerical analysis results conclusively prove the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism. The robot with its fabricated platform is field tested by allowing it to surmount a rocky obstacle and ascend a deformable slope. The results indicate that the proposed body rotation mechanism is an effective approach for enhancing the mobility of a wheeled robot in traversing complex terrains.

Innovative Design and Kinematic Characteristics Analysis of Floating Mobile Chassis of Inspection Robot

“…The design of the wheel-leg mechanism was based on the slider crank mechanism, and the robot's obstacle-surmounting ability has been improved to realize rapid movement and adapt to complex terrain, but the robot's motion stability has not been improved significantly. Kun Jung Kim et al [21] proposed a wheeled mobile chassis with a body rotation mechanism to improve the maneuverability of the robot through complex terrain. Roland Siegwart et al [22] proposed a six-wheel drive wheeled robot, which adopted a rhombus structure.…”