Mechanism design and control method of reconfigurable tracked robot

The reconfigurable tracked robot was developed for all-terrain recon. Based on the unique characters of reconfigurable robot, modular mechanical and electrical structure and control method were discussed. The tracked robot was composed of four basic locomotion modules, three connecting rods and two rotational articulations. By the different configurations of all the modules, the mechanical reconfiguration of the tracked vehicle was realized. The distributed control system was adopted. Based on the ARM (advanced RISC microprocessor) real time embedded control system, the reconfiguration was realized when the mechanical structure of the robot was reconfigured. The tracked robot was validated that it has the excellent adaptable ability in complex terrain and has easy and simple reconfigurable performance when it executed recon in the building interior simulating the real task.