58 th ILMENAU SCIENTIFIC COLLOQUIUM Technische Universität Ilmenau, 08 – 12 September 2014 URN: urn:nbn:de:gbv:ilm1-2014iwk:3 ©2014 - TU Ilmenau DESIGN OF A PHASE – SHIFTING DOUBLE – WHEG – MODULE FOR QUADRUPED ROBOTS Max Fremerey 1 , Sebastian Köhring 1 , Omar Nassar 1 , Manuel Schöne 1 , Karl Weinmeister 1 , Felix Becker 2 , Goran orđević 3 and Hartmut Witte 1 1 Technische Universität Ilmenau, Chair of Biomechatronics, 98693 Ilmenau, Germany {maximilian-otto.fremerey,sebastian.koehring,omar.nassar, manuel.schoene,karl.weinmeister,hartmut.witte}@tu-ilmenau.de 2 Technische Universität Ilmenau, Chair of Technical Mechanics, 98693 Ilmenau, Germany felix.becker@tu-ilmenau.de 3 University of Ni, Control Engineering Department and Robotic Lab, 18000 Nis, Serbia goran.s.djordjevic@elfak.ni.ac.rs ABSTRACT Following mechatronic design methodology this paper introduces a phase-shifting double- wheg-module which forms an alternative approach for wheg-driven robots. During construction focus was placed on a smooth locomotion of the wheg-mechanism over flat terrain (low alternation of the CoM in vertical y-direction) as well as the ability to overcome obstacles. Simulations using the multi-body simulation tool ADAMS View ® were executed in order to prove estimations done. Using the results of simulation and calculation a first prototype was designed, manufactured and tested by experiment. Index Terms – whegs, mechatronic design, simulation 1. INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION Stable and robust walking over unstructured and unknown terrain is still a challenging task for a robot or an autonomously acting machine. Considering the issue the robot or the autonomously acting machine has additionally to deal with different kinds of obstacles, the implementation of (bio-inspired) legs for locomotion purposes displays a possible approach. TEKKEN II [6], CHEETAH-CUB robot [14] or BIGDOG [11] are formidable examples for successful bio-inspired walking machines. Thereby it is quite interesting that (while neglecting other design criteria) robustness can be achieved either by complicated software algorithms (BIGDOG), embodiment (well-designed, even compliant mechanics like in CHEETAH-CUB), or a balanced mixture of both. However, legged robots exhibits some disadvantages due to their kind of locomotion. One major issue is the high number of actuators used. BIGDOG requires 16 [11] and even CHEETAH- CUB featuring a bio-inspired pantograph-like mechanism (c.f. Witte & Fischer [4]) has two actuators per leg and therewith eight in sum [14]. In addition, the proper synchronization of the legs still needs effort in control. Thus the authors want to highlight another possible, yet established approach for robust robot locomotion: the concept of whegs (like shown in section 2), and their improvement. Fig.1 illustrates the principle of a wheg (wheel + leg) and its derivation from a wheel. Thereby a URN (Paper): urn:nbn:de:gbv:ilm1-2014iwk-037:5