Design and Research of All-Terrain Wheel-Legged Robot

Sensors (Basel). 2021 Aug 9;21(16):5367. doi: 10.3390/s21165367.

Abstract

Aiming at the crossing problem of complex terrain, to further improve the ability of obstacles crossing, this paper designs and develops an all-terrain wheel-legged hybrid robot (WLHR) with strong adaptability to the environment. According to the operation requirements in different road conditions, the robot adopts a wheel and leg compound structure, which can realize the transformation of wheel movement and leg movement to adjust its motion state. The straight and turning process of the robot is analyzed theoretically, the kinematics model is established and solved, and obstacle crossing analysis is carried out by establishing the mathematical model of front wheel obstacle crossing when the robot meets obstacles. To verify the analysis results, ADAMS software is used to simulate and analyze the process of robot running on the complex road surface and obstacles-crossing. Finally, a theoretical prototype is made to verify its feasibility. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the designed WLHR is feasible and has the stability of the wheeled mechanism and the higher obstacle crossing ability of the legged mechanism so that the robot can adapt to a variety of complex road conditions.

Keywords: complex terrain; kinematic mode; obstacle-crossing analysis; wheel-legged robot.

MeSH terms

  • Biomechanical Phenomena
  • Motion
  • Movement
  • Robotics*
  • Running*