Abstract
Small mobile robots with transformable wheels have recently emerged thanks to their increased mobility and maneuverability. When a high payload is applied to these robots, however, wheel transformation becomes difficult because they must directly overcome the payload’s weight. In this paper, we propose a wheel that can be transformed from its starting circular shape (radius, 56 mm) to a wheel with three legs (radius, 99 mm) under a high payload with low operating force. The key design principle of this wheel is to kinematically decoupled legs and passive locking. Its legs are kinematically decoupled but operated by a single air pump using a pneumatic channel connected to soft pneumatic actuators installed at each leg. Application of pressure causes the legs to behave like a coupled system through the pneumatic channel. With pressurization, the two legs that are not in contact with the ground easily emerge from body, and the leg in contact with the ground emerges once the wheel rotates. Once emerged, each leg is supported by a rigid pawl instead of by the soft pneumatic actuators. This setup enables the legs to be transformed independently with low air pressure, even under high payloads. It reduces system weight and the energy required to maintain the transformed shape. This legged wheel can overcome obstacles up to 2.9 times the radius of the wheel in its circular form, and wheel transformation can be accomplished with 85 kPa air pressure for payloads up to 1115 g.
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Recommended by Guest Editor Sungwan Kim. This work was supported by the Technology Innovation Program (10051287, Development of fundamental technology of soft robotics for advanced soft gripper) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Korea). This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) Grant funded by the Korean Government(MSIP)(No.NRF-2016R1A5A1938472).
Sung-Sik Yun received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 2016. His current research interests include the design and fabrication of soft robotics and rehabilitation and assistive robotics.
Jun-Young Lee received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 2012. His research interests include soft robotics, mechanical designs, and biomimetics.
Gwang-Pil Jung received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea, in 2010 and a Ph.D. degree from Seoul National University in 2016. His current research interests include the design and fabrication of biologically inspired soft robots and novel mechanisms using smart materials, structures, and actuators.
Kyu-Jin Cho received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1998 and 2000, respectively, and a Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory until 2008. At present he is an Associate Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Director of the BioRobotics Laboratory at Seoul National University. His research interests include biologically inspired robotics, soft robotics, soft wearable devices, novel mechanisms using smart structures, and rehabilitation and assistive robotics. He has received the 2014 IEEE RAS Early Academic Career Award, the 2014 ASME Compliant Mechanism Award, the 2013 IROS Best Video Award, and the 2013 KSPE Paik Am Award.
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Yun, SS., Lee, JY., Jung, GP. et al. Development of a transformable wheel actuated by soft pneumatic actuators. Int. J. Control Autom. Syst. 15, 36–44 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-016-0477-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-016-0477-9