Review and developing tendency of sliding unconventional walking

According to the greening developing tendency in machinery industry, the trafficability and dynamic performance of transportation platform in intricate terrain has become an urgent problem in the mechanical area. Aimed at conventional walking, the reason for lower trafficability, higher-energy consumption, and stronger destruction of ecology in intricate terrain is analysed. The mechanisms of various unconventional walking are discussed. Compared with the others, characteristic of sliding unconventional walking is described. As the main transportation platform, vehicle configuration is the research priorities. Therefore, the solution of multi-pass problem, as one of pivotal problems in vehicle configuration, is discussed in detail. The inadequacies in terramechanics are revealed, which is one of the essential reasons for the development of different vehicle configurations. On the basis of vehicle configuration, the effect of sliding walking is analysed in vehicle morphology. The application area and research methods of sliding walking devices are described comprehensively, which characterized sliding as the means of transport. The mechanism and performance of sliding walking devices are discussed minutely from the points of mechanical system design and dynamic characteristic. The microscopic mechanism of the sliding characteristics and bionics of machinery on the ground are described thoroughly. The research methods and developing tendency of sliding unconventional walking is summarized in the fields of robots and vehicles. The predicated key sliding technology in the future will focus on the compliance in the mechanical analysis and structural analysis.