Maneuvering robotic vehicles
First Claim
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1. A robot capable of addressing various obstacles, comprising:
- a chassis supporting a skid steered drive and having a leading end, a trailing end, and a chassis center of gravity (chassis CG) therebetween;
a set of driven flippers, each flipper having a pivot end, a distal end, and a flipper center of gravity (flipper CG) therebetween, each flipper being pivotable about a first pivot axis common with a drive axis near the leading end of the chassis;
a neck having a pivot end, a distal end, and a neck center of gravity (neck CG) therebetween, the neck pivotable about a second pivot axis substantially at the leading end of the chassis; and
a sensor head at the distal end of the neck, the head having a pivot end, a distal end, and a head center of gravity (head CG) therebetween, the head pivotable with respect to the neck about a third pivot axis at the distal end of the neck;
the chassis, flippers, neck and head;
(i) having a combined center of gravity (combined CG) disposed in a fore-aft sense between the distal and pivot ends of the flippers when the flippers are in a stowed position with their distal ends between the leading and trailing ends of the chassis, and(ii) being movable between a first position and a second position to overcome an obstacle; and
a programmed controller configured, by a plurality of executable instructions stored on the controller, to direct the robot to;
approach a plurality of stairs having a first pitch and a first step span;
raise the flippers to an angle of at least about 30 degrees;
mount a lowermost stair to a first position where the chassis is oriented at approximately the first pitch;
adjust flipper orientation to approximately match the first pitch; and
adjust the position of the overall gravitation center of the robot (robot CG) by moving the neck forward into a stair ascending position in which the head CG is forward of the chassis CG; and
climb the stairs by driving the flippers and the skid steered drive and maintaining the flipper orientation to approximately match the first pitch so that the robot spans at least two step edges.
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Abstract
Configurations are provided for vehicular robots or other vehicles to provide shifting of their centers of gravity for enhanced obstacle navigation. A robot chassis with pivotable driven flippers has a pivotable neck and sensor head mounted toward the front of the chassis. The neck is pivoted forward to shift the vehicle combined center of gravity (combined CG) forward for various climbing and navigation tasks. The flippers may also be selectively moved to reposition the center of gravity. Various weight distributions allow different CG shifting capabilities.
66 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A robot capable of addressing various obstacles, comprising:
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a chassis supporting a skid steered drive and having a leading end, a trailing end, and a chassis center of gravity (chassis CG) therebetween; a set of driven flippers, each flipper having a pivot end, a distal end, and a flipper center of gravity (flipper CG) therebetween, each flipper being pivotable about a first pivot axis common with a drive axis near the leading end of the chassis; a neck having a pivot end, a distal end, and a neck center of gravity (neck CG) therebetween, the neck pivotable about a second pivot axis substantially at the leading end of the chassis; and a sensor head at the distal end of the neck, the head having a pivot end, a distal end, and a head center of gravity (head CG) therebetween, the head pivotable with respect to the neck about a third pivot axis at the distal end of the neck; the chassis, flippers, neck and head; (i) having a combined center of gravity (combined CG) disposed in a fore-aft sense between the distal and pivot ends of the flippers when the flippers are in a stowed position with their distal ends between the leading and trailing ends of the chassis, and (ii) being movable between a first position and a second position to overcome an obstacle; and a programmed controller configured, by a plurality of executable instructions stored on the controller, to direct the robot to; approach a plurality of stairs having a first pitch and a first step span; raise the flippers to an angle of at least about 30 degrees; mount a lowermost stair to a first position where the chassis is oriented at approximately the first pitch; adjust flipper orientation to approximately match the first pitch; and adjust the position of the overall gravitation center of the robot (robot CG) by moving the neck forward into a stair ascending position in which the head CG is forward of the chassis CG; and climb the stairs by driving the flippers and the skid steered drive and maintaining the flipper orientation to approximately match the first pitch so that the robot spans at least two step edges. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of controlling a robot to climb stairs having a first pitch and a first step span,
wherein the robot comprises: -
a chassis supporting a skid steered drive and having a leading end, a trailing end, and a chassis center of gravity (chassis CG) therebetween; a set of driven flippers, each flipper having a pivot end, a distal end, and a flipper center of gravity (flipper CG) therebetween, each flipper being pivotable about a first pivot axis common with a drive axis near the leading end of the chassis; a neck having a pivot end, a distal end, and a neck center of gravity (neck CG) therebetween, the neck pivotable about a second pivot axis substantially at the leading end of the chassis; and a sensor head at the distal end of the neck, the head having a pivot end, a distal end, and a head center of gravity (head CG) therebetween, the head pivotable with respect to the neck about a third pivot axis at the distal end of the neck, the chassis, flippers, neck and head; (i) having a combined center of gravity (combined CG) disposed in a fore-aft sense between the distal and pivot ends of the flippers when the flippers are in a stowed position with their distal ends between the leading and trailing ends of the chassis, and (ii) being movable between a first position and a second position to overcome an obstacle; the method comprising directing the robot to; approach the stairs; raise flippers to an angle of at least about 30 degrees; mount a lowermost stair to a first position where the chassis is oriented at approximately the first pitch; adjust flipper orientation to approximately match the first pitch; adjust the position of the overall gravitation center of the robot (robot CG) by moving the neck forward into a stair ascending position in which the head CG is forward of the chassis CG; and climb the stairs by driving the flippers and the skid steered drive and maintaining the flipper orientation to approximately match the first pitch so that the robot spans at least two step edges. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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16. A method of controlling a robot to overcome an obstacle, the method comprising directing the robot to perform the following tasks:
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approach the obstacle; raise a set of flippers of the robot to an angle to mount the obstacle, each flipper in the set of flippers having a pivot end, a distal end, and a flipper center of gravity (flipper CG) therebetween, each flipper pivotable about a first pivot axis; mount the obstacle to a first position where a chassis of the robot is oriented at a first pitch, the chassis of the robot having a chassis center of gravity (chassis CG); adjust the flippers to an orientation to match the first pitch, whereby a robot center of gravity (robot CG) is shifted at least laterally toward the obstacle; and adjust the robot center of gravity by moving a neck of the robot forward into an obstacle mounting position, wherein the neck includes a pivot end, a distal end, and a neck center of gravity (neck CG) therebetween, the neck pivotable about a second pivot axis, the neck further including a sensor head at the distal end of the neck, the sensor head having a head center of gravity (head CG), and wherein adjusting the neck includes moving the neck and the sensor head between; an obstacle ascending position in which a vertical projection of the robot CG is located in a stable range between one step span in front of a rear-most ground contact point of the robot and one step span behind a front most front ground contact and in which the head CG is forward of the chassis CG, and at least one alternate position in which the vertical projection of the robot CG is outside of the stable range. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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Specification