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Hybrid Wheel-Leg Locomotion in Rough Terrain

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Experimental Robotics (ISER 2020)

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel locomotion strategy of combining wheeled and legged actuation in a parallel structure. This enables the robot to traverse rough terrains using the articulated limbs and use wheeled locomotion for more efficient traversal over smooth terrains. Authors present a prototype robot architecture to embody the concept and show experimentally the robot traversing a variety of indoor and outdoor terrains. Additionally, a novel butterfly gait is introduced for the robot that enables stable and efficient traversal of challenging terrains.

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Correspondence to Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay .

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Silva, B. et al. (2021). Hybrid Wheel-Leg Locomotion in Rough Terrain. In: Siciliano, B., Laschi, C., Khatib, O. (eds) Experimental Robotics. ISER 2020. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71151-1_9

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