Step-climbing analysis of a novel tracked robot

In this paper, we introduce a novel crawler-driven module that is capable of climbing over high steps autonomously, and present the cooperative driving of these two crawler-driven modules for increasing the robot mobility of step-climbing. The proposed mechanism of the crawler-driven module equipped with planetary gear reducers can provide two outputs in different form only be one actuator. Through experimental tests, it is known that the developed crawler-driven module can not only move on the even ground but also pass over high steps without any sensors for discriminating obstacles and any extra actuators or mechanisms for assistance. It is also shown by experimental tests that the mobility of the crawler-driven mechanism can be highly improved by cooperatively driving two of these crawler-driven modules.