Chaos, an intelligent ultra-mobile SUGV: combining the mobility of wheels, tracks, and legs

Abstract

Autonomous Solutions has developed Chaos, a small unmanned ground vehicle with four modular running gear receptacles. Running gear attached to the vehicle can include any combination of wheels, tracks, articulated and shape-shifting tracks, and legs. Each unit is independently controllable and field changeable. This modular design allows Chaos to combine the strengths of traditional and bio-inspired locomotion. The vehicle offers unprecedented mobility potential including walking, stair climbing, clambering over obstacles, steep slope traversal and extrication. To fully exploit the vehicle's mobility potential, intelligent behaviors must be integrated to reduce the complexity of vehicle operation. Mobility behaviors include operator assisted tele-operation, adaptive gaits, obstacle characterization, traversal, and extrication. This paper will describe the design and development of Chaos including running gear and intelligent mobility behaviors.