A Novel Reconfigurable Wheel-Legged Mobile Mechanism

This paper presents a novel wheel-legged mobile robot with a reconfigurable frame, which uses a compliant kaleidocycles inspired spring-hinged eight-bar mechanism. The kinematic model of the mechanism is established and the relationships between actual rotation angle and the joint angles is thoroughly obtained in the spherical coordinate system. According to the analysis of the multivariable potential energy surface, the relationship among multistable performance, under-actuated behavior and potential mechanism energy is studied. On account of under-actuated kinematic relationship and multistability of the proposed mechanism, a cable-driven approach is used and its feasibility is finally verified by the experiment of the prototype robot.