Rollover Prevention for Quadruped Tracked Mobile Robot by Legs Dynamics Control

A tracked mobile robot with legs has the ability to prevent rollover in the move on uneven terrain by controlling its legs. A quadruped tracked mobile robot developed in this study can quickly control the legs mounted on the four corners of the body so that they posture properly according to its tipping situation. This paper presents a method for the prevention of rollover by the quadruped tracked robot. Angular acceleration of the robot is measured using an inertial measurement device which is mounted on the robot. Corresponding to the information, the robot can give necessary torques for the legs to prevent rollover. A model is presented for computing the leg torques based on dynamics of the robot. The computational results of the torques showed that the robot is able to prevent rollover in a situation in which the robot moving forward and running over a protruding object. Two experiments were conducted with the leg control for rollover prevention based on the result when the robot normally ran without the leg control. The result showed that the robot was able to prevent rollover effectively.