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Mobile robot with passively articulated driving tracks for high terrainability and maneuverability on unstructured rough terrain: Design, analysis, and performance evaluation

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Abstract

This study presents a new mobile robot with passively articulated driving tracks for high terrainability (TA) and maneuverability (MA) on unstructured, rough terrain. The mobile robot consists of four driving tracks, two rocker links, and four pitch-roll two-degrees-offreedom (2-DOF) passive joints. For performance evaluation, the proposed mechanism was compared with several existing mechanisms, including four tracked mechanisms and three wheel linkage-type mechanisms. Dynamic simulations of reference posture tracking control on three different types of rough terrain using DAFUL confirmed that the incorporation of 2-DOF passive joints and a rocker DOF can contribute to the reduction of TA and MA. TA and MA are reduced by approximately 25.48 % and 44.51 %, respectively, compared with the seven existing locomotion mechanisms. The reasons for improved TA and MA are discussed in terms of three structural features of the proposed mechanism. Finally, the optimization design of the mechanism is constructed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Korea

    Jihoon Kim & Jongwon Kim

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul, 06978, Korea

    Donghun Lee

Authors
  1. Jihoon Kim
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  2. Jongwon Kim
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  3. Donghun Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donghun Lee.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Xiaodong Zhang

Jihoon Kim received his B.S. degree in 2012 from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, where he is currently working toward his Ph.D. degree. His current research interests include mobile robotic platform design and control.

Jongwon Kim received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea, in 1978, his M.S. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from KAIST, Korea, in 1980, and his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, in 1987. He is currently a Professor at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Korea. His current research interests include parallel mechanisms, Taguchi methodology, and field robots.

Donghun Lee received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Soongsil University, Korea, in 2004, and his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea, in 2009. He is currently a Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering, Soongsil University, Korea. His current research interests include field robots, human motion recognition, machine learning, and redundant mechanism.

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Kim, J., Kim, J. & Lee, D. Mobile robot with passively articulated driving tracks for high terrainability and maneuverability on unstructured rough terrain: Design, analysis, and performance evaluation. J Mech Sci Technol 32, 5389–5400 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-1037-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-1037-4

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