Experimental verification of the walking and turning gaits for a two-actuated spoke wheel robot

Abstract

Intelligent mobility platform with active spoke system (IMPASS) is a novel wheel-leg hybrid robot that can walk in unstructured environments by stretching in or out three independently actuated spokes of each wheel. This form of novel locomotion has the potential to combine the efficiency of a wheeled robot and the mobility of a legged robot. A highly mobile robot such as IMPASS could prove very valuable in applications where the terrain is complex and dangerous, such as search and rescue, reconnaissance, or anti-terror response. This video presents the experiments and findings of a variety of straight-line walking, transitions, and turning gaits. With the 1-1 and 2-2 straight walking gaits, the robot can move forward stably but with different constraints. Unlike other wheeled vehicles which use Arckerman steering or differential steering, IMPASS can implement novel turning gaits even though the left and right hubs rotate with the same angular velocity. Steady state turning gait is demonstrated with skew transitions. Additionally, a free form gait is demonstrated using joystick control with interesting observations.