An online stair-climbing control method for a transformable tracked robot

Stair-climbing is a necessary capacity for mobile robots. This paper presents an online control method for the stair-climbing of a transformable tracked robot, Amoeba-II, and this robot is also an isomerism-modules robot with different mechanism modules. Based on the reasonable compartmentalization and kinematics analysis of the stair-climbing process, the coordination of the rotations of modules can reduce the slippage between tracks and terrain. To ensure that the robot can climb stairs with enough capability and stability, the stair-climbing criterion for the robot has been established based on the force analysis of each stage of the stair-climbing procedure. Meanwhile, the interference-avoiding criterion has been set up to avoid the interference between the non-tracked module of the robot and the stair. The experiment for the stair-climbing of the robot has been implemented to certify the validity of the online stair-climbing control method for a transformable tracked robot. © 2012 IEEE