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Modeling and Control of Robots on Rough Terrain

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Springer Handbook of Robotics

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Abstract

In this chapter, we introduce modeling and control for wheeled mobile robots and tracked vehicles. The target environment is rough terrains, which includes both deformable soil and heaps of rubble. Therefore, the topics are roughly divided into two categories, wheeled robots on deformable soil and tracked vehicles on heaps of rubble.

After providing an overview of this area in Sect. 50.1, a modeling method of wheeled robots on a deformable terrain is introduced in Sect. 50.2. It is based on terramechanics, which is the study focusing on the mechanical properties of natural rough terrain and its response to off-road vehicle, specifically the interaction between wheel/track and soil. In Sect. 50.3, the control of wheeled robots is introduced. A wheeled robot often experiences wheel slippage as well as its sideslip while traversing rough terrain. Therefore, the basic approach in this section is to compensate the slip via steering and driving maneuvers. In the case of navigation on heaps of rubble, tracked vehicles have much advantage. To improve traversability in such challenging environments, some tracked vehicles are equipped with subtracks, and one kinematical modeling method of tracked vehicle on rough terrain is introduced in Sect. 50.4. In addition, stability analysis of such vehicles is introduced in Sect. 50.5. Based on such kinematical model and stability analysis, a sensor-based control of tracked vehicle on rough terrain is introduced in Sect. 50.6. Sect. 50.7 summarizes this chapter.

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Abbreviations

3-D:

three-dimensional

COG:

center of gravity

DEM:

discrete element method

DLR:

Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt

DOF:

degree of freedom

ESM:

energy stability margin

FEM:

finite element method

IMU:

inertial measurement unit

JAXA:

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

LIDAR:

light detection and ranging

MIT:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

NESM:

normalized ESM

PID:

proportional–integral–derivative

SCM:

soil contact model

SLAM:

simultaneous localization and mapping

UGV:

unmanned ground vehicle

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-01, Aramaki aza Aoba, 980-8579, Sendai, Japan

    Keiji Nagatani & Yoshito Okada

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, 223-8522, Yokohama, Japan

    Genya Ishigami

Authors
  1. Keiji Nagatani
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  2. Genya Ishigami
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  3. Yoshito Okada
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Keiji Nagatani .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Via Claudio 21, 80125, Naples, Italy

    Bruno Siciliano

  2. Department of Computer Sciences, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, CA 94305, Stanford, USA

    Oussama Khatib

Video-References

Video-References

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Mobility prediction of rovers on soft terrain available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/50/videodetails/184

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Experiments of wheeled rovers in a sandbox covered with loose soil available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/50/videodetails/185

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Terradynamics of legged locomotion for traversal in granular media available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/50/videodetails/186

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Interaction human-robot supervision, long range science rover for Mars exploration available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/50/videodetails/187

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A path-following control scheme for a four-wheeled mobile robot available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/50/videodetails/188

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Evaluation test of tracked vehicles on random step fields in the Disaster City available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/50/videodetails/189

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Autonomous sub-tracks control available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/50/videodetails/190

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Autonomous sub-tracks control available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/50/videodetails/191

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Nagatani, K., Ishigami, G., Okada, Y. (2016). Modeling and Control of Robots on Rough Terrain. In: Siciliano, B., Khatib, O. (eds) Springer Handbook of Robotics. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32552-1_50

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