Analysis of Legged Wheels with Spring Suspension for Stair-Climbing Robotics

The following article looked into legged wheels with spring suspension. The idea behind the work was to see how adding springs in various places and their stiffness would impact the robot's ability to navigate through stairs. Due to the unconventional appearance of legged wheels, they are not suitable for even terrain passage. Hence, the idea was to add springs to minimize shock occurrence each time a leg touches the even environment. It was also important to equip springs throughout the whole path. As the robot progresses through steps, a greater disturbance of the structure occurs. Two different ideas were tested. In the first scenario, springs were attached between the holder of the wheels and the main body. In the second scenario, springs were directly added to the legs. The extruded part of the leg was divided into two, and a spring was embedded between these two parts. Different values of spring stiffness were also examined. The results illustrated that the structure would go further by implementing springs in all four wheels or in the rear. However, the structure was tested only on an upward incline. With other setups, it might be different with the rearrangement of the springs. It was also noted that with higher stiffness of the springs, the structure became unstable. In the second scenario, results illustrated the slightest progress. For instance, when the front wheels' legs were modified, they showed better results. To understand the influence in more depth, further investigation of the problem must be conducted.