Crawlerization of autonomous mobile robots to improve their ability to travel over rough roads

Abstract

In recent years, there has been much anticipation for the practical application of robots that provide services in various fields. The Robotics Laboratory of Kobe City College of Technology has been developing "Kobeport(oo)n," a two-wheel drive autonomous mobile robot, with the goal of performing park manual tasks in place of humans. In demonstration tests, the robot could not climb steps and slopes present in the park. In this study, an experiment was conducted to improve the robot's ability to run over irregular terrain, and we proposed as well an evaluation method to grade how well the robot did on this rough terrain.