A terrain-adaptive robot prototype designed for bumpy-surface exploration

This paper proposes a deformable polygonal robot, aiming at high flexibility for crawling on rough terrain. A planar prototype is first developed to perform laboratory tests on a two-dimensional track. The shape of this prototype is continuously changed by the driving servos, and this determines the locomotion of the robot over a given terrain. A dynamic model considering the contact forces is applied to evaluate the performance of different gaits via simulation. Locomotion gaits are designed by kinematics, and validated first through dynamic simulation, and then by experiments. Based on the prototype, we carried out a series of laboratory experiments on several typical terrains, including slopes, obstacles, and steps. Results from simulations and experiments show that the robot is highly capable of adapting to complex terrains.