Design, Modeling and Analysis of a Novel Reconfigurable Wheeled Robot With Elastic Actuated Mechanism

Abstract This paper presents the novel design of a Reconfigurable Wheeled Robot (RWR) with an Elastic Actuated Mechanism (EAM) capable of improving the robots dynamic stability on irregular terrain by controlling the RWR’s ground clearance, body roll and pitch angles with optimally distributing the vertical force on each tire. The EAM mainly consists of a linear actuator connected in series with a shock absorber. Four sets of the EAM are used to create different robot configurations to adapt to the terrain. The RWR dynamic model is derived for analyzing the dynamic behavior using the linear actuators positions and speeds as inputs to determine the resulting ground clearance, body roll, and pitch angles. Sensors are integrated onboard the RWR to calculate the robot’s states in real-time for use in feedback control. Results obtained in real environments reveal the effectiveness of the proposed novel design in stabilizing the RWR on irregular terrain.