Development of a wheeled mobile robot "octal wheel" realized climbing up and down stairs

This paper proposes an eight-wheeled robot which is able to climb over the uneven terrain for rescue, de-mining other works. In order to perform these works without human assistance, robots must have the ability to move on rugged terrain. Wheeled vehicles have advantages for moving efficiency and speed but the disadvantage is that the diameter of the wheel limits which obstacles can be surmounted. This paper proposes a mechanism which eliminates the disadvantages of a wheeled system. This mechanism is applied to a self-standing type eight-wheeled robot which is able to climb up and down stairs by utilizing a command form remote controller. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this mechanism and robot.