Development of elastic wheels with omni-directional mobility

Abstract

This study is to realize omni-directional mobile robots which is compact, lightweight, impact resistant, targeted for unpaved rough terrain. We propose a new wheel structure with is omni-directional mobility. The new wheel is made of a thermoplastic elastomer which is a material with flexibility, it has not only omni-directional mobility but also small size and impact resistance. This paper describes our propose, development of elastic wheels with omni-directional mobility and describe performance evaluation experiments.