Multi-legged adaptable crawler capable of maintaining a constant pose locomotion over rugged terrain

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce practical design and hardware implementation issues of an adaptable crawler mechanism for a mobile robot, enabling it to maintaining its constant desired pose when moving. For this purpose, a novel multi-legged adaptable crawler (MLAC) prototype is proposed by utilizing a spring and a rack-and-pinion unit. More specifically, the MLAC prototype allows changing of the crawler configuration in order to adapt to a local surface topology. When the MLAC prototype is mounted under the mobile robot, even though the robot might encounter ascending/descending slopes and thresholds, the mechanism allows it to preserve its locomotive pose continuously. The design and performance of the MLAC prototype is explained in detail. As a result, the effectiveness of the crawler was verified through extensive experiments. Although the robot equipped with the proposed crawler encountered ascending/descending slopes and thresholds, it could preserve its desired locomotive pose continuously. Moreover, we investigated the technical features by comparing the proposed crawler and a typical crawler through experiments.