Moving mechanism in snow and ice environments using buoyancy and propulsion provided by crawler-mounted, “Double valley wheel”

Abstract

Currently, developments around robot mobility are very diverse. In disaster areas and other places where it is difficult for humans to walk, especially in places that are not flat, there has been research on methods and experiments from a variety of perspectives. Examples of previous studies include underwater movement and locations where it is difficult to obtain a stable posture, such as on stony, sandy, and soft ground. On the other hand, there are relatively few studies on snow environments such as snow damage sites. The purpose of this study is to develop a mechanism for a snow mobile robot that can move stably to investigate and supply rescue items at snow damage sites. This study investigates the mechanism by designing specialized wheels which gains both buoyancy and traction force on snow. Also, we propose a pseudo snow field that resembles physical characteristics of snow, which allows conducting experiments of snow-field mobile robots under warm environment.