Impact reduction mobile robot (IRR): Design of compliant legs

Most mobile robot, walking mechanism and the ability to move from point to point were the most crucial part to design. Being able to survive through impact condition is essential for robot under crucial circumstances such as rescue robots or military robots. In this paper, we design and develop a robot with the impact reduction mechanism which based on the compliant design of its legs. The stiffness of the legs was designed to not only serve walking purpose but also to help reduce impact while dropping. With this design, the robot will gradually press the ground during landing using the spring like legs. The compliant legs with nonlinear spring constant help absorb impact energy while the robot hits the ground. During drop-landing motion, the robot also transforms himself from a spherical shape into a legged robot while landing. The legs serve the walking purpose on the ground and will be transformed back to the ball shape for rolling motion on a smooth terrain. The robot´s legs are capable of walking on uneven terrain and steps while the transformation between the spherical shaped robot and the legged robot increase the motion capability on various terrains.