姿勢安定走行を可能とする形状可変クローラ機構

抄録

This paper presents practical design and hardware implementation issues of an adaptable crawler mechanism for a mobile robot, enabling the robot to maintaining its constant posture when roving. For the purpose, we propose a novel multi-legged adaptable crawler (MLAC) device based on a spring and a rack-and-pinion unit. Specially, the MLAC device allows to change the crawler configuration in order to adapt to a local surface geometry. When the MLAC device is mounted under the robot body, even though the robot encounters ascending/descending slopes and thresholds, the mechanism allows it to preserve its locomotive posture constantly. The design and features of the MLAC device are explained in detail, and its effectiveness is verified through extensive experiments in everyday environments.