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Miniature Wheel-Leg Mobile Robots Print E-mail
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia   
Feb 01 2008
Page 2 of 2
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A Whegs has six wheel-legs and, hence, contains three axles: one for each pair of wheel-legs. A Mini- Whegs contains four wheel-legs and, hence, contains two axles: one for the front pair of wheel-legs and one for the rear pair of wheellegs. One motor drives all three axles in a Whegs or both axles in a Mini-Whegs via chains and sprockets, causing the robot to nominally walk in a cockroach-like alternating tripod gait. Steering is accomplished by means of an electrically actuated servomechanism connected to a front-wheel steering linkage similar to that of an automobile.

Image
Figure 2. One of the Mini-Whegs Robots is shown with its front wheel-legs climbing an obstacle.
To date, five Mini-Whegs have been built, each incorporating a different advancement. All are battery powered and most are operated by remote (radio) control. The first one, shown in Figure 2, has a body about 3.25" ~(8.3 cm) long, 2.5" ~(6.4 cm) wide and 0.8" ~(2.0 cm) high; wheel-legs having a radius of 1.3" ~(3.3 cm); and a total mass of 125 g. Most of the Mini-Whegs can move at a sustained speed of more than 10 body lengths per second and can run over obstacles taller than their body lengths. They can run forward and backward and on either side. They are sufficiently robust that they can fall down stairs without sustaining noticeable damage. Each can carry a payload equal to twice its weight. One of the Mini-Whegs contains a jumping mechanism that enables it to surmount an obstacle is high as 9" ~(23 cm) — more than the height of a standard stair step.

This work was done by Roger D. Quinn, Roy E. Ritzmann, Jeremy Morrey, and Andrew Horchler of Case Western Reserve University for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

This Brief includes a Technical Support Package (TSP).

Miniature Wheel-Leg Mobile Robots (reference DARPA-0004) is currently available for download from the TSP library.

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