Design and simulation of a leg-wheel hybrid robot

Quadruped robots which can be utilized in the field of rescue, exploration, and entertainment have the characteristic of adapting to different kind of terrain. But raising the speed of them can be intricate. Researchers have developed many kinds of leg-wheel hybrid robots to solve this problem. Traditional leg-wheel hybrid robots always have separated legs and wheels. Obviously, wheels move faster than legs, but smooth ground won't always appear in nature world. Wheels may just be used occasionally. So, we introduce a design of Leg-Wheel hybrid mobile platform which includes a leg-wheel transformation mechanism. It is much more efficient than the separated mechanism. This kind of leg-wheel robot has compact structure. The place for redundant electrical elements can be saved, that means the weight of robot can be reduced incidentally. Also, the design of control system and movement simulation is reported.