Roller-Walker: A New Leg-Wheel Hybrid Mobile Robot.

Abstract

A new leg-wheel hybrid vehicle called "Roller-Walker" is proposed. The Roller-Walker is a vehicle with a special foot mechanism which changes between feet soles for the walking mode and passive wheels for the wheel. On rugged terrain, the vehicle walks in the leg mode, and on level or comparatively smooth terrain, the vehicle moves by wtheeled locomotion using the passive wheel in a manner resembling roller-skating. The characteristics of the Roller-Walker are that (1) it has a hybrid function but can have lightweight design and, (2) it will have the capability for high terrain adaptability in the wheeled mode if the method of controling the Roller-Walking is fully investigated in the future. We perform basic simulation experiments of the Roller-Walk and clarify its fundamental behavior and demonstrate basic relations in the terrain adaptive trajectory control method.