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Maneuvering robotic vehicles

  • US 8,644,991 B2
  • Filed: 08/21/2007
  • Issued: 02/04/2014
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2006
  • Status: Active Grant
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, the chassis having a chassis length and chassis height and chassis width, the chassis length being less than 24.5 inches and the chassis height being less than 7.5 inches and the chassis width being less than 16 inches;

    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, each flipper having a flipper length;

    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, the neck having a neck length;

    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 head having a head length,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, wherein the robot has a stowed length in the stowed position equal to the chassis length so that the flipper length, neck length, and head length do not add to the chassis length of the robot in the stowed position, 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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