Development of Body Rotational Wheeled Robot and its Verification of Effectiveness

A wheeled robot operating on various terrains such as scattered obstacles and slopes is required to cope with and overcome the driving environment. In this paper, in order to overcome a step-type obstacle and to steadily ascend on the slope, the main body rotation mechanism, which controls the load distribution on the robot wheels was proposed for a wheel-drive robot. By rotating the center of the body mass, the friction/traction force required for climbing step obstacles can be reduced. In the case of slope traveling, the slip can be suppressed, and the traveling ability improved by controlling the load distribution excessively increased on the downhill wheel due to the attitude change of the robot's body. The mechanical effect of the proposed body rotation mechanism was analyzed. In addition, based on the design and manufacture of the robot platform, the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism was convincingly demonstrated by indoor test for step-obstacle climbing and slope-traveling.