Development and Analysis of a Closed-Chain Wheel-Leg Mobile Platform

  • Chaoran Wei ,
  • Yanan Yao ,
  • Jianxu Wu ,
  • Ran Liu
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  • School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

Received date: 2019-10-10

  Revised date: 2020-09-05

  Online published: 2021-01-14

Supported by

Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51735009)

Abstract

Current research concerning legged platforms and wheeled platforms primarily focuses on terrain adaptive capability and speed capability, respectively. Compared with wheeled platforms, legged platforms with a closed-chain mechanism still present deficiencies regarding speed ability. To integrate the advantages of these two types of platforms, a wheel-leg mobile platform with two modes based on a closed-chain mechanism is proposed. First, a closed-chain mechanism that generates a high-knee trajectory in legged mode is designed and analyzed based on kinematic analysis. To improve the platformos obstacle-surmounting performance, the dimensional parameters of the closed-chain mechanism are optimized and the design requirements for the platformos frame are analyzed. In addition, the particular structure of the leg group is designed to realize transformation between legged mode and wheeled mode. The mobility of the constructed platform is calculated through an obstacle-surmounting probability analysis. The performances of the two motion modes are analyzed and compared by conducting dynamic simulations. Finally, experiments are carried out to verify both the theoretical analyses and the prototype performance. This study proposes a new approach to designing wheel-leg platforms with prominent speed ability and mobility based on a closed-chain mechanism.

Cite this article

Chaoran Wei , Yanan Yao , Jianxu Wu , Ran Liu . Development and Analysis of a Closed-Chain Wheel-Leg Mobile Platform[J]. Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2020 , 33(5) : 80 -80 . DOI: 10.1186/s10033-020-00493-9

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