WAREC-1 — A four-limbed robot having high locomotion ability with versatility in locomotion styles

Abstract

This paper presents a novel four-limbed robot, WAREC-1 having high locomotion ability with versatility in locomotion styles. At disaster sites, there are various types of environments where a robot must move such as rough terrain with possibility of collapse, narrow places, stairs, vertical ladders and so on. WAREC-1 moves in hazardous environments by changing locomotion styles: bipedal/quadrupedal walking, crawling, and ladder climbing. WAREC-1 has commonly structured limbs with 28-DoFs in total with 7-DoFs in each limb. The robot is 1,690 mm tall when standing on two limbs and weighs 155 kg. We developed three types actuator units with hollow structure to pass the wiring inside the joints of WAREC-1, which enables the robot to move on rubble by creeping on its stomach. The body has a concave shape, and the end-effector has hook-like shape. Verification of the WAREC-1 robot is conducted through experiments.