A transformable human-carrying wheel–leg mobility for daily use

摘要

There is increasing demand for robots that provide a mode of transportation in environments in which people coexist. However, conventional mobile robots, especially those carrying people, are limited in terms of their environments and tasks. For example, wheeled robots are limited to moving on flat ground. Walking robots are limited to entertainment and so on. The originality of the present paper is the development of a novel movement mechanism for a mobility apparatus that can handle various daily use scenes. We first clarify functional requirements for daily use. We then propose a transformable human-carrying wheel–leg mobility. The leg is based on a serial link and compactly uses a parallel link mechanism such that the motor is placed on top, which improves responsiveness when having a high payload and compact shape. By conducting simulations and experiments with the prototype, it is confirmed that expected operations can be realized. In particular, it is confirmed that the weight of the leg tips is reduced, such that the shaking of the waist in the direction of travel during the ascent of a step is reduced by 68%. The above results reveal that the prototype can be used in daily life.