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ETH (Switzerland) also developed a mobile platform for
rough terrain [4]. It has two three-degrees of freedom
legs and also has two one-degree of freedom legs that
have a passive wheel at their end. Its number of active
degree of freedom is eight. Tohoku University (Japan)
constructed a leg-wheel separation type robot [5]. It has
two big active wheels at the both sides of the body, and
four legs with three joints at the both ends of the body.
Fourteen actuators are used for the robot.
In this paper, classification of the environment for
mobile robot is considered from the viewpoint of
locomotion mechanism at first. In section 3, a new
locomotion mechanism is proposed, and a prototype robot
that employs the mechanism is introduced. Section 4 describes moving algorithm for the prototype robot.
Implementation of the algorithm is explained in section 5.
2. Locomotion mechanism and environment
Now we consider classification of the environment
from the contact between locomotion mechanism and the
ground. When terrain is flat, the locomotion mechanism
can always keeps contact with the ground. We call this
kind of terrain continuous contact locomotion
environment. In this environment, conventional wheels
and crawlers are available. Although wheels and
crawlers have different locomotive capability, both
mechanisms always keep contact with the ground during
locomotion. The trace of movement in this environment
is continuous lines. One of the causes wheeled or
tracked vehicle cannot move is existence of obstacles like
steps. We call the terrain that includes such obstacles
discontinuous contact locomotion environment. In order
to move in this kind of environment, robots that have
actively suspended wheels or shape-changeable crawlers
have been developed. In this environment, a mechanism
that switches the contact point between the locomotion
mechanism and the ground is essential. The trace of the
movement is line segments. More serious environment
is discrete contact locomotion environment. In this
environment, continuous contact between locomotion
mechanism and the ground is not allowed. Locomotion
mechanism has to support and propel the robot only by
using discrete point contacts with the ground. Robots in
this environment must be equipped with legs. The trace
is sequence of points.
Our research target is locomotion in mountainous
area, and it is considered as discontinuous contact
locomotion environment. To move over obstacles such
as steps, legged locomotion is effective. However,
legged mechanism has demerits also. The mechanical
configuration is complicated, and it requires large
number of degrees of freedom. Generally, three degrees
of freedom are necessary for each leg. In the case of a
quadruped, total number of actuator is twelve.
Moreover, moving speed or energy efficiency is lower
than wheeled or tracked locomotion when it moves on
relatively flat terrain.