Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : June 05, 2019 - June 08, 2019
Though leg-wheel mechanisms are expected to have both merits of wheels and legs, proposals so far tend to employ redundant number of actuators and a complicated structure. Thus, this study proposes a new mechanism which employ minimum number of two actuators and a simple structure consisting of two half-circles and a four linkage mechanism to form a wheel-shape and a leg-shape selectively. At first, kinematics is derived between movements of the actuators and the foot. Secondly, a single leg-wheel prototype of is made to confirm the motion. Then, a quadruped prototype is designed and fabricated and experiments are performed to confirm the effectivity of the proposed mechanism.
