The Journal of Korea Robotics Society (로봇학회논문지)

Korea Robotics Society (한국로봇학회)
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Modular Crawler with Adjustable Number of Legs and Performance Evaluation of Hexapod Robot

다리 수 조절이 가능한 모듈러 크롤러의 설계 및 6족 로봇의 주행 성능 평가

  • Yim, Sojung (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University) ;
  • Baek, Sang-Min (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University) ;
  • Lee, Jongeun (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University) ;
  • Chae, Soo-Hwan (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University) ;
  • Ryu, Jae-Kwan (Unmanned/Robotic Systems Lab. LIG Nex1) ;
  • Jo, Yong-Jin (Unmanned/Robotic Systems Lab. LIG Nex1) ;
  • Cho, Kyu-Jin (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Institute of Advanced Machines and Design, Seoul National University)
  • Received : 2019.09.09
  • Accepted : 2019.10.13
  • Published : 2019.11.30
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Abstract

Legged locomotion has high mobility on irregular surfaces by touching the ground at discrete points. Inspired by the creature's legged locomotion, legged robots have been developed to explore unstructured environments. In this paper, we propose a modular crawler that can easily adjust the number of legs for adapting the environment that the robot should move. One module has a pair of legs, so the number of legs can be adjusted by changing the number of modules. All legs are driven by a single driving motor for simple and compact design, so the driving axle of each module is connected by the universal joint. Universal joints between modules enable the body flexion for steering or overcoming higher obstacles. A prototype of crawler with three modules is built and the driving performance and the effect of module lifting on the ability to overcome obstacles are demonstrated by the experiments.

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References

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