Analysis and experiments on a novel smoothly moving low-DoF multilegged robot. (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ruan, Qiang; Yao, Yan-an; Wu, Jian-xu
• Is Part Of: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Volume 234:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 302
• Page End: 317
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: SmooBot -- smooth walking -- low-degree-of-freedom -- multilegged robot -- cam compensation mechanism -- energy efficiency; Mechanical engineering -- Periodicals; 621.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0954406219848468
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0954-4062

Abstract

SmooBot, a novel low-degree-of-freedom multilegged robot with a smoothly moving platform is proposed in the paper, which is aimed at helping people do the delivery jobs in the industrial site. Cam compensation mechanisms are applied to the robot so the platform keeps smoothly moving while the robot is walking. With the special design of the compensation mechanism, the height, velocity, and attitude of the platform almost keep constant. The motion input of the compensation mechanism shares the same continuous rotation with the mechanical legs and remain the compact structure. The cam mechanisms are designed based on the kinematics analysis of the mechanical legs. The walking simulations and prototype experiments are carried out to testify the theoretical analysis. Based on the simulation and experiment results, the enhancements of the compensation mechanisms in the platform smoothness and the energy efficiency are discussed. The study in the paper provides a new idea to enable a low-degree-of-freedom multilegged robot to have a smoothly moving platform and to carry heavy load at a high speed by using the cam compensation mechanisms.