Cooperative Step Climbing Using Connected Wheeled Robots and Evaluation of Remote Operability

The present study evaluates the remote operability of step climbing using two connected robots that are teleoperated by individual operators. In general, a teleoperated robot is manipulated by an operator who is viewing moving images from a camera, which is one of the greatest advantages of such a system. However, robot teleoperation is not easy when a teleoperated robot is affected by the force from another robot or object. We constructed a step climbing system using two connected teleoperated robots. A theoretical analysis and the results of simulations clarified the correlations among the robot velocity, the manipulation time of the robots, and the height of the front wheels when climbing a step. The experimental results demonstrate the step climbing ability of the teleoperated robot system.