The concept of a jumping rescue robot with variable transmission mechanism

In order to manipulate the non-predictable and complex environment in disaster, jumping locomotion, which many natural organisms use to traverse rough terrain and encounter obstacles larger than their size, is borrowed from the biology to explore a jumping rescue robot. In this paper, a novel concept of jumping robot with the up-geared five-bar mechanism is proposed to achieve jumping locomotion. In the proposed jumping mechanism, the jumping robot can store energy in two extension springs by energy storage mechanism, and release all the energy in one jump by release mechanism. Meanwhile, the jumping mechanism can achieve the posture adjustment and change the jumping direction. Moreover, using variable transmission mechanism, the jumping robot can adjust the height and distance for each jump to adapt to various environments. In this proposal, a spline shaft is controlled by a liner servo motor to engage with one gear thereby providing three forward gear ratios. The simulation and experiment of the robot prototype results about variable transmission mechanism show that the distance of jumping in horizontal direction increases with the increasing gear ratio, while the height of jumping decreases in verse. The robot can enhance the capability to adapt to unknown cluttered environments by this strategy.