Mechanism and control of a leg-wheel hybrid mobile robot

Author

Adachi, H. ; Koyachi, N. ; Arai, T. ; Shimiza, A. ; Nogami, Y.

Author_Institution

Mech. Eng. Lab., Tsukuba Labs., Ibaraki, Japan

Volume

3

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

1792

Abstract

Describes the mechanism and control of a leg-wheel hybrid mobile robot. Legged locomotion has high adaptability for rough terrain, and wheeled locomotion possesses speed and efficiency. A locomotion mechanism that combines legs and wheels is proposed, and a prototype mobile robot that adopts the mechanism is introduced. The robot has four legs, and a wheel is attached at the end of each leg. The front leg has three joints and a passive wheel. The rear leg has one joint and an active wheel. In order to make the best of the mechanism, three locomotion modes, wheel mode, hybrid mode, and step mode, are developed. In the wheel mode, four wheels are used on flat terrain. On rough terrain, the hybrid mode is selected, and two legs and two active wheels are used for locomotion. To climb or descend a large step, the step mode is used

Keywords

legged locomotion; active wheel; hybrid mode; leg-wheel hybrid mobile robot; locomotion mechanism; rough terrain; step mode; wheel mode; wheeled locomotion; Actuators; Crawlers; Laboratories; Leg; Legged locomotion; Mechanical engineering; Mobile robots; Prototypes; Service robots; Wheels;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Intelligent Robots and Systems, 1999. IROS '99. Proceedings. 1999 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on

Conference_Location

Kyongju

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5184-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IROS.1999.811738

Filename

811738