Design and analysis of a novel metamorphic wheel-legged rover mechanism

Abstract

A novel design of metamorphic hybrid wheel-legged rover was proposed, which possesses both advantages of the two manners of locomotion such as walking in 4-leg mode and moving in wheeled-vehicle mode. The width of its body can be changed due to the special body mechanism, the novel rover has high capability to adapt the complex terrain. The design of this novel metamorphic robot was particularly presented. Some potential configurations corresponding to the environment and functional requirement were illustrated, and its DOF was analyzed. The kinematics modeling when the rover is moving with leg is built, and the simulation result of the typical gait was presented.