¿Legs or wheels? Taiwan University installed a robot both quite versatile

Robots like Asimo , PETMAN and Alpha Dog , among others, have shown that robots whose motion is supported by legs or feet is a perfectly viable and functional allowing many robots move, be able to climb stairs or even a rough terrain, however, there are robots whose locomotion depends on wheels and are also able to move through difficult terrain without losing balance or moving rapidly. The use of wheels or legs are two ways to address the problem of moving a robot that in the case of National Taiwan University, have decided to join and combine both installed in a robot quite versatile .

Quattroped, which is the name of this robot is able to move on four legs or on four wheels since they have installed both and use one or the other depending on the situation. Sending a command to the robot, its wheels are able to fold and four-legged shape as C, allowing the operator to control the robot to switch between one system or another depending on the terrain that the robot has to pass through Quattroped.

This robot consists of multiple sensor systems covering all types of functions: inertial (accelerometers, gyroscopes and tilt sensors), sensors to detect obstacles and measure distances (Laser meter and infrared sensors), GPS navigation system and a artificial vision system based on cameras. A whole array of systems controlled by a CPU of 400 MHz and a Wi-Fi interface that allows remote control from a computer using the National Instruments LabVIEW as robot control interface.

The project was conducted by Pei-Chun Lin, Chen-Chiang Shen, Ke Jung Huang, Shuan-Yu Shen and Cheng-Hsin Li, Department of Mechanical Engineering at National Taiwan University in order to develop a hybrid robot combining both wheels and legs in an efficient from the standpoint of energy and able to adapt quickly to any type of terrain. After the project, the team presented their creation to a competition organized by National Instruments where he was a finalist in the official selection and won the audience award.