Departmental Papers (ESE)
Abstract
This paper describes the development of a legged robot designed for general locomotion of complex terrain but specialized for dynamical, high-speed climbing of a uniformly convex cylindrical structure, such as an outdoor telephone pole. This robot, the RiSE V3 climbing machine—mass 5.4 kg, length 70 cm, excluding a 28 cm tail appendage—includes several novel mechanical features, including novel linkage designs for its legs and a non-backdrivable, energy-dense power transmission to enable high-speed climbing. We summarize the robot’s design and document a climbing behavior that achieves rapid ascent of a wooden telephone pole at 21 cm/s, a speed previously unachieved—and, we believe, heretofore impossible—with a robot of this scale. The behavioral gait of the robot employs the mechanical design to propel the body forward while passively maintaining yaw, pitch, and roll stability during climbing locomotion. The robot’s general-purpose legged design coupled with its specialized ability to quickly gain elevation and park at a vertical station silently with minimal energy consumption suggest potential applications including search and surveillance operations as well as ad hoc networking.
Document Type
Conference Paper
Subject Area
GRASP, Kodlab
Date of this Version
5-2009
Date Posted: 20 May 2009
Comments
G. C. Haynes, Alex Khripin, Goran Lynch, Jon Amory, Aaron Saunders, Alfred A. Rizzi, and D. E. Koditschek , "Rapid Pole Climbing with a Quadrupedal Robot," IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. May 2009
Copyright 2009 IEEE.
Reprinted from Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation 2009 (ICRA 2009)
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