A terrain-adaptive robot prototype designed for bumpy-surface exploration

This paper proposes a deformable polygonal robot, aiming at high flexibility for crawling on rough terrain. A planar prototype is first developed to perform laboratory tests on a two-dimensional track. The shape of this prototype is continuously changed by the driving servos, and this determines the locomotion of the robot over a given terrain. A dynamic model considering the contact forces is applied to evaluate the performance of different...