Development of quadruped walking robot with the mission of mine detection and removal-proposal of shape-feedback master-slave arm

Abstract

Proposes a quadruped walking robot which performs mine detection and removal tasks. Because there are many personnel mines remaining from wars, it is desirable to provide a safe, inexpensive tool which civilians can use to remove these mines. The robot has a tool changing system on its back, so by utilizing the legs as manipulation arms and connecting various tools to the foot, it can perform mine detection and removal tasks. For these tasks, we developed the shape-feedback master-slave arm as a kind of basic technology. When a contact force is applied to the slave arm, the shape of the slave is transmitted to the master arm. We can estimate the force from this shape. We discuss the basic design concepts of the robot system and the shape-feedback controlled gripper.