Static Analysis and Experimentation on Obstacle-overcoming for a Novel Field Robotic Platform using Flip Motion

Abstract

The ability to overcome obstacles is necessary for field robots for various applications including the ability to climb stairs. While much research has been performed focusing on overcoming obstacles, the resulting robots do not have sufficient ability to overcome obstacles such as stairs. In this research, the purpose is to overcome relatively large obstacles by flipping locomotion through the modification of the stair climbing robotic platform of the previous research. We propose two scenarios to overcome large obstacles: a rear wheel driving system and an elevation system using a ball screw. The research is performed based on static analyses on obstacleclimbing. As the simulation results indicate, we determined the optimal posture of the robot for climbing obstacles for rear wheel driving. Also, an elevation system is analyzed for obstacle climbing. Between the two scenarios an elevation system is determined to reduce the operating torque of the actuator, and the prototype was recently assembled. The climbing ability of the robotic platform is verified. We expect the application area for this robotic platform will be in accident areas of nuclear power plants.Keywords: static analysis, field robot, field robot platform, overcoming large obstacle, prototype