Reducing Fluctuation of Sandy Reaction Force for a Rigid and Flexible Paddles Combined Leg

Sandy terrain exists in various environments such as desert and beach. In these kinds of environments, exploration robots which equip wheel with paddle are used instead of human. However, in case of wheel with paddle, the reaction force from the sand fluctuate due to the paddle and wheel. Therefore, we focus on a six legged robot with 1 DOF rotational paddle called RHex. This paper presents a new paddle leg combined with rigid and flexible paddle to reduce fluctuation of the sandy reaction force. Among the rigid and flexible paddles, the maximum sand reaction force and the angle of it is different. Therefore, we pursue the possibility to generate constant (non fluctuating) propulsive force with two stiffness-combined paddle.