ASGUARD: A Hybrid Legged Wheel Security and SAR-Robot Using Bio-Inspired Locomotion for Rough Terrain

Zusammenfassung (Abstract) :

For outdoor locomotion of mobile robots, one has to cope with different requirements for such systems. These robots have to be highly agile and fast on flat ground and, at the same time, should be able to deal with very rough terrain, e.g. rubble, gravel, and even stairs. This is particularly true for robots which are used for surveillance and search and rescue missions (SAR) in outdoor environment as well as for robots for remote inspection, such as CBRNE detection in crises situations. Tracked robots are currently regarded as the best trade-off between high velocity and mobility in rough terrain. Those systems have the drawback of high energy consumption due to friction and are generally not able to climb stairs or very steep slopes. In this paper we present a hybrid legged-wheel approach which is used for our outdoor security robot Asguard. The robot has four rotating wheels in the shape of a five-pointed star. Each point of the star serves as a leg during locomotion and is controlled using bio-inspired central pattern generators (CPGs). We will show in this work that with our approach, the robot can handle high velocities, is able to climb stairs, and can cope with piles of rubble without changing the hardware configuration.