轮爪式探测车Rabbit的运动性能分析

Motion performance analysis of Rabbit rover with retractable-claw wheels

为了提高机器人的越障能力,设计了一种新型探测车Rabbit,该车装有4个轮爪式车轮.介绍了轮爪式车轮的原理,以及Rabbit样机移动系统和控制系统的设计,并通过实验对其进行了运动性能分析.结果表明:Rabbit可以在各种地形中自如运动,如台阶路面、斜坡路面、多障碍路面和月球模拟土壤中等.Rabbit还可以越过高度为车轮半径1.4倍的台阶,并能越过斜度为40°的斜坡,性能优于普通圆形车轮.该轮爪式探测车适用于行星探测或野外探测.

To improve the climbing obstacles capability of a robot, a rover prototype named as Rabbit whose motion is based on 4 retractable-claw wheels was designed. Principle of the wheel, mobile system and control system of Rabbit were presented respectively, and some experiments were finished to test its perform- ance. The experimental results show that the Rabbit rover can move freely in various terrain conditions, such as step, slope, multiple-obstacle, and simulated lunar soil, etc. Experiment results demonstrate that the re- tractable-claw wheels enable the rover to traverse over steps whose height is 1.4 times of the wheel radius, o- ver sloped terrains up to 40° tilt angle, which is much larger than conventional robots can do. The rover with retractable-claw wheels is proved to be suitable for planetary or field exploration.