Kinematic analysis on land of an amphibious spherical robot system

The amphibious robots have been widely applied in kinds of fields, such as fishery industry, data collecting, submarine salvage and military etc. In this paper, we focus on a novel amphibious spherical robot system. In order to verify the kinematics characteristics of the amphibious robot, the Jacobian matrix based on the Denavit-Hartenberg parameters method, which can reflect the relation between velocity and angular velocity of the joint, can be obtained. The Jacobian matrix offers theoretical foundation for the following simulation analysis based on virtual prototype. We use 3D mechanical modelling software Solidworks to establish a model and import it into dynamics simulation software ADAMS (Automatic Dynamic Analysis of Mechanical Systems). And then the joint simulation experimental data, such as the position, velocity and acceleration which can validate the feasibility of the walking gait planning. In the course of carrying on simulation we can carry on simulation course observing model altering and result treating. And get the walking speed of amphibious robot at the same time. Lastly, some experiments demonstrate that simulation results coincide with the result of kinematic analysis. The results prove that the simulation in ADAMS can be accurate to describe the kinematic characteristics of the robot.