Osamu Mori

We have proposed a self-reconfigurable parallel robot, which can be configured to 4R and 5R closed kinematic chains. By mounting it on a crawler mechanism, this paper proposes a parallel mechanism mobile robot. The combined mobile robot can gain some useful functionalities from the advantage of its parallel mechanism other than just locomotion, such as carrying an object by making use of its shape and getting over a bump by control of its center of gravity or zmp. In general, for a crawler robot to get over a vertical bump, friction is necessary in the vertical direction of the bump. The proposed sequence of getting over a bump does not rely on friction. Furthermore, cooperation of two or more such robots gains functionalities such as forming three-dimensional structures. Using two robots, we verify that the 4R robot can elevate the 5R robot, which enables the latter to reach a certain height in which it cannot alone. We analyze the statics of this motion to evaluate the necessary joint torque of the 4R robot.