Design and characterization of two-frame all-terrain robot for navigation in unstructured and treacherous environments

Robots designed for navigation use one or more of the three basic locomotion configurations viz rotational devices such as wheels or crawler tracks, legs and articulated bodies. In this paper we present the design and characterization of a hybrid locomotion mechanism for mobile robots navigating in unstructured and possibly treacherous environments. We fuse the advantages offered by the three classes of locomotion to provide for navigation through uneven surfaces. The robot is a single segment, dual chassis, single wheel platform where forward and backward movement is achieved through actuation of links for the chassis. Turning in any direction is achieved by the actuation of a single corrugated disc. The robot can carry nominal payloads for vision based reconnaissance and search and rescue operations. We provide the results and analysis of experiments conducted to validate the maneuverability of this hybrid robot on uneven surfaces. .This robot has been tested on smooth, uneven and unstructured terrains as well as underwater.