Small Search Robot Consisting of Plural Driving Wheels Connected by Flexible Shafts

抄録

The small mobile search robot we proposed in a previous study is driven by a pair of flexible shafts and is used effectively for searching rubble to find victims, e.g., of an earthquake. The robot weighs relatively little because it does not have any power unit on it. It may be kept from moving forward, however, if the flexible shafts catch on obstacles. We propose a new small search robot consisting of plural driving wheels connected by flexible shafts. This robot drags the flexible shafts along the ground easily using driving wheels. We designed the robot to connect its driving wheels using a pair of flexible shafts. We consider a differential gear suitable for the drive transmission and confirm the robot’s propulsion and turning in experiments.