Development of a Mobile Robot with Wavy Movement by Rotating Bars

Abstract

Mobile robots with a new type of movement called wavy movement will be proposed in this paper, Up to now, stair climbing robots can be roughly classified into crawler, leg and wheel types by their movements, but there are still some problems in each type. A crawler type is heavy and complicated, a leg type is hard to control, and a wheel type can not get over big obstacles. A robot with wavy movement, which can be readily realized by rotating bars or crosses, is able to ascend and descend stairs with simple structure and easy control method by covering corners of stairs within separate wave shapes between touching points. The principle of wavy movement, the mechanism, and the experimental result of the proposed robot are discussed.