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Tracked robot with underactuated tension-driven RRP transformable mechanism: ideas and design

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Abstract

Robots with transformable tracked mechanisms are widely used in complex terrains because of their high adaptability, and many studies on novel locomotion mechanisms have been conducted to make them able to climb higher obstacles. Developing underactuated transformable mechanisms for tracked robots could decrease the number of actuators used while maintaining the flexibility and obstacle-crossing capability of these robots, and increasing their cost performance. Therefore, the underactuated tracked robots have appreciable research potential. In this paper, a novel tracked robot with a newly proposed underactuated revolute–revolute–prismatic (RRP) transformable mechanism, which is inspired by the sit-up actions of humans, was developed. The newly proposed tracked robot has only two actuators installed on the track pulleys for moving and does not need extra actuators for transformations. Instead, it could concentrate the track belt’s tension toward one side, and the unbalanced tension would drive the linkage mechanisms to change its configuration. Through this method, the proposed underactuated design could change its external shape to create support points with the terrain and move its center of mass actively at the same time while climbing obstacles or crossing other kinds of terrains, thus greatly improving the climbing capability of the robot. The geometry and kinematic relationships of the robot and the crossing strategies for three kinds of typical obstacles are discussed. On the basis of such crossing motions, the parameters of links in the robot are designed to make sure the robot has sufficient stability while climbing obstacles. Terrain-crossing dynamic simulations were run and analyzed to prove the feasibility of the robot. A prototype was built and tested. Experiments show that the proposed robot could climb platforms with heights up to 33.3% of the robot’s length or cross gaps with widths up to 43.5% of the robot’s length.

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Abbreviations

COM:

Center of mass

DOF:

Degrees of freedom

RRP:

Revolute–revolute–prismatic

PWM:

Pulse-width modulation

UTMTR:

Underactuated tension-motivated tracked robot

a, b, γ :

Positions and postures of the UTMTR in the environment

A x, B x :

Intermediate variables, which shows the relationships between xcf and lT (or lTr)

A y, B y :

Intermediate variables, which shows the relationships between ycf and lT (or lTr)

l l, l 2 :

Lengths of Links l and 2, respectively

l 1m :

Distance between the center of rear pulley and COM of Link l

l 2m :

Distance between revolute joint B and COM of Link 2

l 3 :

Distance between revolute joint A and the axis of the front pulley

l 3m :

Distance between revolute joint A and COM of Link 3

l 4m :

Distance between the center of front pulley and COM of Link 4

l T :

Length of the tensioned segment of the track belt in steps 1–4

l T0 :

Initial value of lT

l Tr :

Length of the tensioned segment of the track belt in step 5, which is reversed with the ones in steps 1–4

l Y, l Z :

Intermediate variables for the convince of formulation

L :

Total length of the track belt

m fp, m rp :

Masses of front and rear pulley, respectively

m i, (i = 1,2,…,4):

Mass of Link i

p 0, p 1, p 2 :

Homogeneous coordinates of a support point under robot coordinates

p f0 :

Homogeneous coordinate of the front pulley’s center under the base coordinate of the robot

p G :

Homogeneous coordinate of a support point under ground coordinate

r :

Dividing radius of pulleys

R :

Transformation matrix between OR0 and ORi (i = 1,2)

R 01, R 12 :

Transformation matrixes between robot coordinate systems

R T :

Transformation matrix between the ground coordinate and the base coordinate of the robot

T front, T rear :

Driving torques of front and rear pulleys according to results of dynamic simulations, respectively

x cf, y cf :

Coordinate values of the front pulley’s center under the base coordinate of the robot in the x and y directions, respectively

x sp, y sp :

Coordinate values of the support point under robot coordinate in the x and y directions, respectively

X COM1 :

Distances between COM and the shaft of the rear pulley along the moving direction before climbing actions

X COM2 :

Distances between COM and the shaft of the rear pulley along the moving direction after climbing actions

ΔX COM :

Moving distance of COM while transforming

ω rear :

Angular speed of the rear pulley

θ A :

Revolve angle of revolute joint A

θ Acal, θ Bcal :

Revolving angles of revolute joints A and B according to calculation, respectively

θ Asim, θ Bsim :

Revolving angles of revolute joints A and B according to results of dynamic simulations, respectively

θ B :

Revolve angle of revolute joint B

θ lim :

Maximum value of θA

Δθ :

Two pulleys’ differential-rotate angle

Δθ (i = 1,3):

Values of Δθ at the end of step i

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant No. 2022JBZY026).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Ran Xu & Chao Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Vehicle Advanced Manufacturing, Measuring and Control Technology (Ministry of Education), Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Chao Liu

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  1. Ran Xu
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Correspondence to Chao Liu.

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Xu, R., Liu, C. Tracked robot with underactuated tension-driven RRP transformable mechanism: ideas and design. Front. Mech. Eng. 19, 4 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11465-023-0777-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11465-023-0777-8

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