Study on Design of Wheel-leg Deformable Wheel and Vehicle Control

In view of the demands of vehicle mobility and obstacle-crossing ability in complex terrain and road conditions, a deformable wheel structure was designed with the characteristics of switching between wheeled and legged states under different terrain and road conditions. The design principle of the deformable wheel was introduced and the structural parameters were calculated and optimized, the maximum diameter ratio of the wheel-leg deformable wheel was obtained. A set of simple and effective wheel-leg deformation control system was also designed. And then the vehicle layout design and movement process analysis was carried out. Finally, a prototype vehicle platform was made to verify the mobility and obstacle-crossing ability by physical experiments. The results show that the deformable wheel may be quickly and intelligently switched between wheeled and legged types, which enables the vehicle to run stably on both structured and unstructured roads, resulting in a high mobility and obstacle-crossing ability of the vehicle system. © 2023 China Mechanical Engineering Magazine Office. All rights reserved.