Autonomous Gait Principe for a Free-Climbing Robot with Mechanical Anisotropy and Uncertainty

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K13721
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 20020:Robotics and intelligent system-related
• Research Institution: Kyushu Institute of Technology (2019); Tohoku University (2018)
• Principal Investigator: Nagaoka Kenji 九州工業大学, 大学院工学研究院, 准教授 (60612520)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: フリークライミング / 鉤爪グリッパ / 把持力 / 自律歩容原理 / 断崖絶壁クライミング / 惑星探査ロボット

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research project has addressed development of a gait control law for a four-limbed free-climbing robot in extreme terrain, such as a cliff wall. This project contributes to development of gripping mechanics of the spine-typed gripper, including its mechanical anisotropy. Moreover, based on the gripping mechanics, a method of which the grippable region is detected by a ranging sensor was proposed and validated by experiments. With these data as feedback information to the control law, the intelligent gait control law was established to satisfy multiple evaluation indexes: distance from the destination, motion stability, the grippable region, and reachable range of the gripper. The developed control method was evaluated by several experiments and numerical simulation, and the results confirmed the validity of the proposed method.

Free Research Field

宇宙ロボティクス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究で扱うフリークライミングロボティクスは，グリッパ（ロボットハンド）の力学的異方性を内包した歩容原理を扱う点で，従来の理想条件下での脚歩行ロボットの研究を包括する．したがって，より一般化した多脚歩容の力学体系を切り開く研究領域といえる．さらに，本研究により実問題を想定した新しい自律歩容制御則を構築することで，これまで無人の探査ロボットがアクセスできなかった過酷な自然の極限環境（特に，急峻な崖や洞窟，渓谷など）でのロボット技術の応用を可能とすることが期待できる．