Step-climbing Ability Research of a Small Scout Wheel-track Robot Platform

The wheel-track robot is a new type of mobile robot combining a wheel and a track in a single component, which can quickly switch between in wheel mode and track mode. We present a small to explain the robot's working principle and operating mode; after that based on statics equation obstacle-climbing abilities are analyzed in different modes-wheel mode, track mode, wheel-tail mode and track-tail mode, from which the maximum theoretical obstacle-climbing heights and necessary torques of motors are obtained; at last, we choose three different heights of steps to wheel-track robot and its mechanical design and control system experiment, and the robot finally succeed crossing obstacles in wheel or track-tail modes. The result shows that theoretical analysis and the robot's design are reasonable. Compared with traditional wheeled robot, the wheel-track robot has a better obstacle-climbing ability. Index Terms: mobile robot; wheel-track; obstacle-climbing