Design of a leg-wheel hybrid mobile platform

Abstract

We introduce the design of a leg-wheel hybrid platform Quattroped. Comparing to most hybrid platforms which have separate mechanisms of wheels and legs, this robot is implemented with a transformation mechanism which directly changes the morphology of wheels (i.e. a full circle) into 2 degree-of-freedom legs (i.e. combining two half-circles as a leg). The mechatronics, software infrastructure, and the initial experimental test of the robot are also reported.