Wheeled robot for geophysical survey

Abstract

A novel kind of mobile robot to be used as “smart carrier” for very high resolution geophysical survey is here described. The robot must move and position a rather large sensor over a grid of points as fine as 5x5 cm or even follow random trajectories individuated by adaptive logic. The structure of the robot, made up of two carts linked by a two d.o.f. articulated joint, gives the necessary dexterity to the robot. The paper illustrates the main characteristics of the device, then describes its motion capabilities and proposes a control strategy allowing the robot to follow the trajectories required for its mission.