Reconbot: A Reconfigurable Rescue Robot Composed of Serial-Parallel Hybrid Upper Humanoid Body and Track Mobile Platform

• Published in: New Advances in Mechanisms, Mechanical Transmissions and Robotics Vol. 46; pp. 241 - 249
• Main Authors: Ding, W., Detert, T., Corves, B., Yao, Y. A.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2016; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Mechanisms and Machine Science
• Subjects: Collaborative locomotion; Cooperative manipulation; Dual-arm; Engines & power transmission; Mobile robot; Reconfigurable parallel mechanism; Robotics; Technical design
• ISBN: 3319454498; 9783319454498
• ISSN: 2211-0984; 2211-0992
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-45450-4_24

The mobility analysis of a 2-URU parallel mechanism (PM) using the screw theory and its novel application for constructing reconfigurable mobile robot are the main focus of this paper. By taking advantage of the singularity positions, the PM can reconfigure into different mobility configurations, which enable the robot to multi-mode collaborative locomotion and cooperative serial-parallel hybrid manipulation. Integrating these properties, a novel reconfigurable rescue robot called Reconbot composed of a track platform, a reconfigurable 2-URU PM with an equal offset in its two universal joints and two 7-DoF serial arms is proposed. The PM consisted of two offset URU branch chains and two platforms serves as dexterous upper body with base platform mounted on the track platform and two arms attached to the moving platform. The Reconbot can deform into folding compact state, serial two-leg state, parallelogram five-bar linkage state, etc.