Lateral Skidding Motion of Tracked Vehicles using Wall Reaction Force

Abstract

Tracked vehicles are expected to be used for factory inspection such as in petrochemical refinery, in which the robot needs to navigate in narrow spaces. During the narrow space navigation, the robot needs to adjust its position in lateral direction. However, it is a difficult problem to realize lateral motion of tracked vehicles for factory inspection, because mechanical complexity is increased if the additional actuator is installed. In this paper, the authors propose a lateral skidding motion of tracked vehicles using wall reaction force. The proposed method convert the direction of driving force by actively colliding the wall with passive wheels, and realize the lateral motion without attaching the additional actuator. Experimental results show that the lateral skidding motion is realized on two types of floor material. In addition, the time for lateral positioning with manual operation was 20 % reduced when the proposed method was used. The use of external force is one solution to change the motion direction in narrow spaces.