DESIGN OF PLANETARY-WHEELED MOBILE ROBOT AND ANALYSIS OF OBSTACLES CROSSING ABILITY

Mobile robots are required to have high mobility, environment adaptability and strong bearing capacity, among other parameters. However, there is a contradiction between robots' miniaturization and obstacles crossing ability. So, how to improve the obstacles crossing ability and reduce the framework complexity of robots have become a research focus on mobile robot builders in recent years. This paper aimed to design a new type of mobile robot to improve the obstacles crossing ability for adapting unexpected circumstances. This article proposes a planetary-wheeled mobile robot, which includes planetary-wheeled group, spring damping system and body frames. To adapt to the complex terrains of unknown environments, the mobile robot adopts the limited articulated body structure. The front frame and rear frame articulated structure is used to adjust the centre of gravity adaptively during the obstacles crossing, and six planetary-wheeled groups are driven independently by motors. The front, middle and rear wheel push and pull each other when obstacles cross, greatly improving the mobile robot obstacles crossing ability and enhancing the adaptability of complex terrains. In design, the kinematic constraints of the mobile robot are analysed, and the relationship between the geometric dimensions of the main components under different constraints is obtained. And, the robot simulation model in various obstacles is established in Adams, the displacement, acceleration and gravity simulation results are obtained, and the obstacles crossing ability of the mobile robot is verified, which shows that the robot has basically met the design requirements.