SBIR-STTR Award

Unmanned robotic vehicles are quickly becoming a very important and useful tool for both military and commercial applications including surveillance and reconnaissance, bomb detecting and disposal, and search and rescue operations. Legged robots provide an opportunity to fill several niches in the mobile robot markets, particularly in applications like urban combat. Since they have the potential to be faster than a foot soldier on smooth terrain and more maneuverable than a tank or jeep on rough terrain, they promise to be a capable middle ground platform. However, to date, no one has developed a practical legged robot that can run quickly, maneuver over rough terrain, and operate from an on-board power source. To bridge this gap, Yobotics proposes to determine the feasibility of an unmanned Quadrupedal Ground Vehicle that can gallop, trot, walk, and jump. This robot will be able to scramble over extremely rough terrain, jump over holes and small obstacles, and run at speeds up to 20 mph on level ground. To achieve high running speeds, the robot will use a galloping gait, as these speeds are unachievable with a trotting gait. For many applications in the military, law enforcement, and space exploration market, the ability to maneuver over extremely rough terrain is of the utmost importance. The proposed legged robot will fill the mission-critical customer need of true mobility in rough and variable terrain. There are numerous advantages of the proposed robot with respect to traditional wheeled and tracked robots: ú The proposed robot will be able to run smoothly and quickly over moderately rough terrain, with obstacle heights on the order of 25% the robot's height. A typical wheeled or tracked robot would find this terrain difficult to traverse and therefore move slowly through it. ú The robot will be able to jump over ditches that are longer than the robot itself. Traditional wheeled vehicles can only clear gaps smaller than the size of any individual wheel and traditional tracked vehicles can only clear gaps about half the length of a track. ú The robot will be able to jump over obstacles that are taller than the robot itself. Traditional wheeled and tracked vehicles can only clear a height on the order of the size of the vehicle's tracks or wheels. ú The robot will be able to run up stairs quickly and maneuver quickly through environments designed around legged humans. ú The robot will be able to maneuver in extremely tight situations by turning in place. Traditional wheeled vehicles require room to turn, while traditional tracked vehicles cause a lot of ground scraping when turning in place

We propose to design, build, control, and test a full-scale quadrupedal robot. The robot will have capabilities that allow it to overcome many of the hurdles that currently impede conventional wheeled and tracked vehicles. The robot will be able to scramble over debris, step over ledges and gaps, jump over ditches and small obstacles, and run up stairs. This robot will fill a role in several Army mission scenarios, including acting as a scout in an urban environment. The Phase II deliverables will include an outdoor demonstration of a functional prototype. In an ongoing Army-sponsored SBIR Phase I project, we are performing a feasibility study of the quadrupedal robot. We have performed physically realistic simulations of the quadruped, developed control algorithms for walking, trotting, and jumping and extracted the power requirements from those simulations. These power requirements have been used to specify power and actuation systems for the robot to be built in Phase II. The control system development and the power system designs demonstrate that the robot is technically feasible and should be able to perform its mission objectives.

Benefits:
Unmanned robotic vehicles are quickly becoming a very important and useful tool for both military and commercial applications including surveillance and reconnaissance, bomb detection and disposal, and search and rescue operations. Legged robots provide an opportunity to fill several niches in the mobile robot markets. A highly mobile legged robot could fulfill several mission requirements, such as functioning as an urban scout to warn troops of dangers around a corner, up a set of stairs, or on the other side of a pile of rubble.

Keywords:
robot, urban scout, enhanced mobility, rough terrain, legged, unmanned ground vehicle