In recent years, the search robots and rescue robots have been investigated which have wheels, crawlers and legs. However, those mechanisms have some difficulties such as (1) easily turn over, (2) possibly break down during falling, and (3) being crushed under fallen debris. This study proposes a new design of a soft mobile robot which can (1) move even after fall down, (2) absorb pressures applied on its body, and (3) move to all directions. Specifically, an Icosahedron Tensegrity is used for the unit of the body which is able to flexibly change its shape according to external forces. Legs having appropriate directions and sizes are attached at the end points of the compression members. It is shown that the legs push the body to a desired direction by changing distances between adjacent compression members with motors. During moving, the robot is responsive to external forces by passively deforming its body. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed mechanism, a prototype of the robot has been developed. The prototype has its own battery and controller so that it can move around by itself. The results of the experiments show that the robot is able to move forward by using the legs. It is also shown that the stride is more powerful and longer than the Tensegrity type robots which use only the gravitational force to move.
抄録全体を表示