Improvement of the Mobility on the Step-Field for a Stair Climbable Robot with Passive Crawlers

Abstract

This paper describes about improvements in the mobility of a stair climbable mobile robot on a step-field. A step-field, standardized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is a simulated artificial rough terrain used for testing rescue robots. Its use was popularized worldwide in the RoboCup Rescue contest, but a method for evaluating test results from it has yet to be established sufficiently. The author of this paper attempts to evaluate the mobility of stair climbable mobile robots on step-fields. A novel method using the 2 parameters of yaw-angle error and lateral position error is proposed. Two actual robots, SMART-IV type A and SMART-IV type B, are constructed and evaluated on small step-fields. The test results indicate that both robots can traverse the step-field under some appropriate conditions, but a comparison of the results indicates that the proposed design changes may be declared an improvement of the robot.