Redundantly Actuated Tetrahedron Mobile Robot Structured by Pure Revolute Joints

doi:10.3901/JME.2019.03.018

Abstract

Abstract: A kind of redundantly actuated tetrahedral mobile robot structured by pure revolute joints is proposed. The robot formed a tetrahedral structure with six RRR chains and four vertices and redundantly actuated by six actuators. The degree-of-freedom (DOF) of the robot is analyzed by using screw theory. Based on the DOF analysis, a kind of rolling locomotion is proposed and the robot can reach any target on the ground with the rolling locomotion. The critical condition that the robot can complete the rolling locomotion is obtained by analyzing the kinematics of the mechanism. The rolling locomotion and the critical condition are testified using a simulation model. A prototype is manufactured and a series of experiments are performed to verify the feasibility of the design and motion planning. The result shows that the pure revolute joint design can improve the practicability of the robot, and the redundantly actuation is beneficial to the reliability.

Key words: pure revolute joint, redundantly actuated, rolling locomotion, tetrahedral mobile robot

CLC Number:

TH122
TP242

WANG Zhirui, YAO Yanan, ZHANG Di, LIU Yang, ZHANG Lin. Redundantly Actuated Tetrahedron Mobile Robot Structured by Pure Revolute Joints[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2019, 55(3): 18-26.

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