Comparison of performance of different traction systems for Terrainean Robots

Abstract

Traction is the key component of an outdoor mobile robot. Essentially traction can be achieved by various means including rolling, walking, crawling & hopping. However the mobility vis-a-vis terrainability of a system can be greatly increased using wheels or tracks of various configurations. As such, higher level of operational performance can be achieved through an appropriate design of traction mechanism. This paper deals with some essential features of these approaches with special reference to tracked systems. All Terrain Robot series developed by CMERI e.g. ATR – I & II, Sub-terrainean Robot (SR), Outdoor Mobile Robot (OMR) are a few selective examples showing various capabilities for tracked mobile robots. In these examples the design configuration changes from simple trapezoidal shape to many other forms with active traction support through re-configurable track geometry. This provides necessary passive compliance and better terrainability. The traction design of a specific mobile robot system is generally guided by the application requirements. In such cases it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to design a traction mechanism universal for all possible applications. The work reported here however, will provide more insight and necessary formalism to design and build a tracked-mobile robot operating in the difficult outdoor and hostile environment.