Abstract
Tracked vehicles are frequently used as search-andrescue robots for exploring areas affected by disasters. To enable good locomotion during search-and-rescue operations on rough terrain, some of those robots are equipped with active flippers. However, the manual control of such flippers requires a highly skilled operator, particularly when teleoperating with limited camera views. To eliminate this problem, we have developed a shared autonomy system that uses a manual controller for the main tracks and an autonomous controller for the active flippers. However, this system has a limitation in that the controller spreads out the flippers to maintain contact with the ground, and thus, the autonomous flipper motions hinder the turning motion of the robot. In this paper, we introduce a new autonomous controller for the flippers to support the turning motion of tracked vehicles. The new controller can be used instead of the previously developed controller, and it complements our shared autonomy system. We also validate the reliability of the new controller by performing experiments on an actual rough terrain.
