A development of a transformable caterpillar equipped mobile robot

This study develops a transformable caterpillar equipped mobile robot(CALEB-2) and a set of strategy for overcoming obstacles. The developed mobile robot CALEB-2 is equipped with 6 driving motor units for traversing uneven terrain with redundant maneuverability. Two of them are driving motor units which generate caterpillar driving force and the rest four driving motor units are for the arm rotation control. The left and right caterpillars are supported by two arms respectively, and all the four arms can rotate around there rotation axes, in consequence by the rotating arms the shapes of each caterpillars can be changed separately. To keep the tension of 2 driving caterpillars optimally, we develop a sliding arm mechanism(caterpillar tension regulator). Also, the CALEB-2 is equipped with 4 PSD distance sensors and 2 tilt sensors for its maneuvering purpose. Moreover all of the 6 driving motor units of CALEB-2 can be operated independently. With the equipped sensors and the redundant maneuverability this study develops an ascending and a descending procedure to/from an obstacle. And this study shows the effectiveness of the developed transformable caterpillar mechanism by the ascending and the descending operation.