Publication
Design of a Rover for Mobile Manipulation in Uneven Terrain in the Context of the SpaceBot Cup
Marc Manz; Roland Sonsalla; Jens Hilljegerdes; Christian Oekermann; Jakob Schwendner; Sebastian Bartsch; Stephan Ptacek
In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS 2014). International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS-2014), International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space, June 17-19, Montreal, Canada, 6/2014.
Abstract
This paper describes the development and test of a mobile manipulation platform intended for a terrestrial robotic competition. While current space missions are planned to minimize complex manipulation tasks, plans for future space missions go beyond these restrictions. Infrastructure deployment, human-robot cooperative missions and complex sample collection require increasingly complex manipulation capabilities. To meet this need the Spacebot Cup consists of several complex manipulation tasks in unstructured terrain. These requirements were the main design driver for the presented system. The presented rover consists of a 3-Boogie-Chasis designed to increase the maximum stepping size, flexible rubber wheels
to increase the maximal climbing inclination on loose surfaces and a small six degree of freedom manipulator to handle objects within the competition. The iterative simulation and experiment process used to develop the flexible rubber wheels is presented. Furthermore experiments are presented which allow a performance comparison betweenflexible and rigid wheels on loose surfaces.