Design of a Self-Reconfigurable Drain Mapping Robot With Level-Shifting Capability

Abstract

Nature has always been an inspiration for engineers and designers to have technological inventions. The postures, locomotion and gait cycles of animals are usually smooth, dynamically stable, and highly adaptable in an unknown terrain. Based on a giraffe's leg folding pattern, we develop a quadruped hybrid drain mapping robot with modular subsystems , four bar inversion mechanism based legs and bi-directional rolling wheel, named, Tarantula-II. The platform undergoes self-reconfiguration and achieves variable height and width, which in turn helps in navigation in a drain with multiple level-shifts. This paper describes the key features of giraffe's limb, how the folding pattern of the limbs are implemented in the robot design. In addition, we discuss the detailed mechanical design of platform, the kinematics analysis of each leg, kinematics of the platform with respect to wheels, and structural analysis of the platform under different gait condition. Applying the kinematics formulation and posture correction algorithm, we verify the mobility and level shifting capability of the platform both in lab setting and drain environment.

A Review of Quadruped Robots: Structure, Control, and Autonomous Motion

“…With respect to the structural design of quadruped robots, current research has focused on enhancing their flexibility and adaptability, such as through the addition of ankles, [ 208 ] tails, [ 209 ] heads, [ 13 ] etc. There is also a growing trend toward equipping quadruped robots with reconfigurable [ 210,211 ] and multimodal [ 207,212 ] locomotion capabilities to adapt to various environments and perform multiple tasks. In the future, quadruped robots could adopt a modular design approach, allowing components such as legs, bodies, and heads to be interchangeable and reconfigurable as needed, thereby facilitating the reconfigurability and expandability of the robot.…”

Collision Avoidance and Stability Study of a Self-Reconfigurable Drainage Robot

“…The distal end of the steering unit is attached to another DC motor that provides rotation about the steering axis and, hence, results in lateral movement of the platform. The details of the self-reconfigurability, structural analysis, and kinematics of each leg and wheel are described in our published work [ 51 ].…”

“…With these design considerations, a quadruped drain inspection robot, named Tarantula-II, was developed [ 51 ]. In the previous study, the detailed mechanism of the platform is described.…”

Mechanical design and wheel–leg–body cooperation control of a step‐climbing robot

“…Multilegged robot has better stability in structure compared with biped robot. Quadruped robot (Khorram & Moosavian, 2017; Parween et al, 2020), hexapod robot (Campbell & Buehler, 2003; Moore et al, 2002), and eight‐legged robot (Luk et al, 1996; Uddin et al, 2019) can climb the steps and even gullies in sequence by avoiding unbalance during the climb. Bipedal robots occupy a smaller area and adapt better to the steps compared with multilegged robots.…”