October 25, 2004

Very cool stair climbing robot

This is something that has to be seen to be appreciated. The videos on the following page do a good job of showing just how agile this little robot is. NGR builds the robot, and Acroname is currently putting some smarts on board. All in all, a very cool effort.

LRV.jpg NRG Engineers have developed a Lightweight Reconnaissance Vehicle (LRV) which is able to climb and descend stairs, rocks and rubble up to 9” in height. This small agile robot has the ability to operate as a stand-alone robot (man packable), or as a mission module (marsupial robot, one that is deployed from a larger robot).

This vehicle uses a polymorphic locomotion system having the ability to act as a wheeled vehicle to traverse moderate terrain quickly and a rough terrain mode for efficient maneuverability up stairways and over rubble. The platform has a pivoting body capable of moving 30 degrees relative to the other side, allowing great mobility in the wheeled mode. The vehicle is able to traverse a wide range of environmental conditions such as: steps, rocks, building obstacles, building debris, level ground, compound slopes (successfully tested at 60°), sand, rocks, and ice surfaces. In addition this vehicle has been fully tested at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Robotics Test Bed.

Posted by elkaim at October 25, 2004 1:24 PM