Stiffness Changing Mechanism Using Variable Moment of Inertia of Area

- Evaluation of Stiffness Changing Performance and Application to Wheels –

Abstract

Stiffness changing mechanism is what switches the stiffness of a structure to take advantage of both "low stiffness" and "high stiffness" functions. Several methods using fluid power and wire systems have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a new method to switch the stiffness by changing the value of the moment of inertia of area, which is different from the conventional methods. In order to verify the principle, we fabricated a prototype machine that can bend a thin plate, and conducted experiments to measure the stiffness. In addition, we fabricated a wheel with a stiffness changing grouser using a thin plate. We also confirmed that the wheel could be used to run smoothly on level ground and to traverse high steps.