Design of terrain adaptive versatile crawler vehicle HELIOS-VI

We are developing the "HELIOS" series, platforms for off-road vehicles and powered wheelchairs that are able to ascend and descend stairs. At present, we are developing an endless rotation locomotion type terrain adaptive vehicle "HELIOS-VI" that is propelled by 2 crawler belts. This vehicle has two continuously variable transmissions to change the velocity and direction of locomotion. The vehicle also has two active arms attached to the axis of the one drive pulley of the active crawler. One of the arms has two passive tires installed at its tip, and improves the vehicle's terrain adaptability in rough terrain; the other arm carries payload and adjusts payload posture. We introduced a structure that can change the posture of this load dynamically. This paper first outlines development process of the HELIOS series, and then discusses the configuration of terrain adaptive crawler vehicle HELIOS-VI and the design of its driving mechanism.