Robots on the Move: Versatility and Complexity in Mobile Robot Locomotion

Researchers have come up with a diverse collection of mobile robot designs with an effort to create systems with superior locomotion characteristics. This is true whether the robot is designed to operate in terrestrial, aquatic, aerial, or scansorial (i.e., vertical and inverted surfaces) domains. Despite the creation of many successful (and unsuccessful) designs, no formal study has systematically examined which morphological features give robots high levels of mobility and maneuverability. This article presents a novel versatility metric that allowed a comparison among mobile robot designs. The results highlighted what design features can help create highly versatile systems without increasing mechanical complexity.