Design and analysis of a six-wheeled companion robot with mechanical obstacle-overcoming adaptivity

Abstract

Abstract. A six-wheeled companion exploration robot with an adaptive climbing mechanism is proposed and released for the complicated terrain environment of planetary exploration. Benefiting from its three-rocker-arm structure, the robot can adapt to complex terrain with its six wheels in contact with the ground during locomotion, which improves the stability of the robot. When the robot moves on the flat ground, it moves forward through the rotation of the wheels. When it encounters obstacles in the process of moving forward, the front obstacle-crossing wheels hold the obstacle, and the rocker arms on both sides rotate themselves with mechanical adaptivity to drive the robot to climb and cross the obstacle like crab legs. Furthermore, a parameterized geometric model is established to analyze the motion stability and the obstacle-crossing performance of the robot. To investigate the feasibility and correctness of design theory and robot scheme, a group of design parameters of the robot are determined. A prototype of the robot is developed, and the experiment results show that the robot can maintain stability in rugged terrain environments and has a certain ability to surmount obstacles.