Intelligent Mobility Platform with Active Spoke System

该项目探索了一种用于非结构化环境的新的高机动性移动系统概念。带有主动辐条系统的智能移动平台(IMPAS)利用带有单独驱动辐条的无框车轮，提供跨过腿部等大型障碍物的能力，适应轨道等不平坦的表面，同时保持车轮的速度和简单性。由于该系统没有腿的复杂性，并且具有很大的有效(车轮)直径，因此这种高度适应性的系统可以在保持可观的行驶速度的同时轻松地穿越极端地形，因此在搜救任务、科学探索和反恐响应应用方面具有巨大的潜力。本研究项目将对这一新概念进行研究、演示和评估，重点研究移动性、智能运动规划和设计问题。拟议活动的智力优势在于开发了一种新型高机动性移动系统的原始概念，并提高了对移动性和智能运动规划问题的理解。这项研究的更广泛影响包括高移动性系统的许多重要应用领域，这是通过将人类的触觉能力扩展到未知和危险的环境而实现的。这一努力将通过将原型设计整合到为期两学期的本科高级设计项目中，将研究与教育相结合，促进教与学。开发的机器人原型将在第一届机器人比赛中向公众展示，并在当地高中展示，以促进人们对科学和工程的兴趣。

This project explores a novel high mobility locomotion system concept for unstructured environments. The Intelligent Mobility Platform with Active Spoke System (IMPASS) utilizes rimless wheels with individually actuated spokes to provide the ability to step over large obstacles like legs, adapt to uneven surfaces like tracks, yet retaining the speed and simplicity of wheels. Since this system lacks the complexity of legs and has a large effective (wheel) diameter, this highly adaptive system can move over extreme terrain with ease while maintaining respectable travel speeds, and thus has great potential for search-and-rescue missions, scientific exploration, and anti-terror response applications. This research project will research, demonstrate and evaluate this novel concept with a focus on studying the issues of mobility, intelligent motion planning, and design. The intellectual merits of the proposed activities lie in the development of an original concept of a new type of high mobility locomotion system and an improved understanding of mobility and intelligent motion planning issues. The broader impacts of this research include the many important application areas of the high mobility system enabled by extending human reach capabilities into unknown and hazardous environments. This effort will integrate research with education and promote teaching and learning by integrating the prototype design into the two-semester undergraduate senior design project. The robot prototypes developed will be demonstrated to the public at the FIRST robotic competitions and at local high schools to promote interest in science and engineering.