A mobile robot driven by uniaxial wave locomotion mechanism

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a novel mobile robot system that uses a uniaxial wave locomotion mechanism. The proposed mechanism can mechanically produce uniaxial surface waves by a single actuator to rotate a helix component that has discrete helical wings. This involves multiple pins with springs and a link mechanism. We designed and developed a mobile robot consisting of a main body and two helical wave locomotion units arranged in parallel. This paper also presents a locomotion model based on the proposed mechanics. The developed robot prototype demonstrated mobility on various surfaces and its skid-steering performance was evaluated. The experimental results validated the feasibility of the proposed wave-locomotion mechanism.