Trench-Crossing Capability Analysis of a Reconfigurable Tracked Mobile Robot
Hei Mo, Shang Jianzhong, Luo Zirong, Wang Zhuo, Intelligent Robotics and Applications, 2010, pp.509-518.
Abstract
A reconfigurable tracked mobile robot (RTMBot) is presented in this paper based on a parallel four-bar mechanism. Firstly the structure of the robot is introduced. After that a centroid configuration model is proposed to analyze the trench-crossing capability of the robot and plan the locomotion configurations for crossing trenches. Then a virtual robot prototype has been constructed to analyze and simulate the performance of trench-crossing. Finally, a prototype of the reconfigurable tracked mobile robot has been produced, and experiments have been performed to verify the design concept and its embodiment. The results show that RTMBot can reconfigure itself to cross trenches.
How Multibody Dynamics Simulation Technology is Used
RecurDyn is used for the analysis and simulation of the reconfigurable tracked mobile robot performance. The simulation was able to identify the capability of a robot configuration to cross trenches. A prototype was then built that confirmed these simulations. Dynamic simulations can save time in the design of tracked robots.
