4R and 5R parallel mechanism mobile robots

We have proposed a self-reconfigurable parallel robot, which can be configured to 4R and 5R closed kinematic chains. This paper proposes a parallel mechanism mobile robot by mounting it on a crawler mechanism. The combined mobile robot gains some useful functionalities other than just locomotion as an advantage of its parallel mechanism, such as getting over a bump by controlling its center of gravity and carrying an object by making use of its shape. Furthermore, the robot can form three-dimensional structures with other such robots and reach a certain height which the single one cannot. We have developed two such robots that are self-contained. This paper analyzes the motions of the functionalities and verifies them experimentally using the robots.