Omnidirectional walking mechanism (1st Report, Control of moving with coordination of actuators)

At construction sites, it is essential that robots move in all directions, because the worksite is very expansive. A robot must move functionally under conditions where floor surfaces are not flat and have many different levels and obstacles. In this paper, we deal with an omnidirectional walking vehicle which can move in all directions and has a simple structure. The walking mechanism proposed in this paper consists of a parallel link mechanism connecting the two frames with three linear actuators. Each frame has extendable legs, and this walking vehicle can walk on a rough floor. The relative position and rotational angle of the two frames can be controlled in accordance with the length of the three linear actuators. We also solved the inverse dynamics of this vehicle. The simulation results show effectiveness of the proposed control method.