Development of omnidirectional vehicle for rough terrain using crank-wheel

Abstract

General crawler robots for nuclear disaster cannot move in lateral direction against the robot travelling direction, which causes difficulty in avoiding dropouts and obstacles on stairs. In previous study, our laboratory developed a mecanum crank, which consists of crank wheels and mecanum wheels, and confirmed its omnidirectional locomotion on a flat and uneven terrain. Owing to the interference between the robot frame and the stairs, the robot could not be traversed on the stairs. Furthermore, non-contact of several mecanum wheels on rough terrain prevented the lateral movement. This paper proposes the following additional mechanisms as well as the frame renovation for the mecanum crank the swing mechanism and the roller grouser. In the experiments, we confirmed the robot locomotion on stairs as well as on a flat terrain. Furthermore, we evaluated for swing mechanism and roller grouser.