A novel wide purpose leg-wheel hybrid mobile vehicle

This paper discusses the development of a novel wide purpose mobile vehicle, zero carrier, which is based on the principle in the patent (#2003-146218). This vehicle consists of eight prismatic-joint legs, four active wheels and four passive casters. Each leg has a simplified and unified mechanism, which can slide up/down independently. Zero carrier can provide large space for carrying human being or goods, perform safe and stable three-dimensional movement while keeping its body horizontal. Having these significant characteristics mentioned above, zero carrier not only is capable of moving on flat ground indoors or climbing stairs, but also can be largely equipped in complex environment such as stations and hospitals. We explain this expected market later in this paper.