OmniQuad robot moves easily with wheels and legs combined
OmniQuad: a Wheeled-Legged Hybrid Robot with Omnidirectional Wheels
Robotics
Summary
Robots that walk on legs are good at handling rough ground but move slowly indoors, while wheeled robots are fast on smooth floors but struggle with obstacles. The authors created OmniQuad, a robot that combines legs with special wheels that let it move in any direction. This design helps the robot move quickly inside buildings and also handle steps and uneven terrain outside. They built the robot, designed its controls, and tested it in different environments.
What this means in practice
- •For indoor logistics teams: Use robots that navigate tight indoor spaces with speed and can also overcome steps and obstacles for efficient warehouse operations.$Commercial implications: Enables selling advanced delivery or material handling robots that combine fast indoor movement with obstacle navigation.
- •For search and rescue teams: Deploy robots capable of agile movement indoors and stepping over debris outdoors to aid in rescue missions in complex environments.
Authors
Francesco Iotti, Alok Ranjan, Franco Angelini, Manolo Garabini
Abstract
Combining wheeled and legged locomotion within a single robotic platform offers the potential to harness the advantages of both systems. The development of such hybrid systems remains an active area of research. While legged robots exhibit remarkable adaptability for traversing uneven and rugged terrains, their relatively low speed limits their practicality in indoor environments. Conversely, wheeled robots demonstrate higher efficiency on flat surfaces but often encounter difficulties when navigating obstacles such as steps. This paper introduces OmniQuad, a novel hybrid robot that integrates mecanum wheels with legged locomotion to exploit the benefits of both modalities. Mecanum wheels provide omnidirectional mobility, enhancing the robot's manoeuvrability by enabling agile movement in confined spaces and the ability to maintain a consistent orientation during task execution. In this work, we first present the design of a custom wheeled-foot featuring mecanum wheels. Subsequently, we describe the complete robot assembly, comprising these wheeled feet and EM-Act actuators. Finally, we detail the control scheme developed to govern the OmniQuad and evaluate its performance through experimental trials conducted in both indoor and outdoor environments.