Design and Analysis of a Wheel-Legged Robot with a Suspension System

A 6-leg wheel-legged robot with an independent suspension system and a foot buffer mechanism is designed, which combines both advantages of the legged robot and the wheeled robot. An independent suspension system referred to the vehicles is applied to the robot to buffer the impact on the robot from the uneven ground and reduce the vibration, so that the inner environment can be stabilized in different complex environments. The mechanism and the structure of the proposed robot are particularly presented. The kinematics models of the robot, and the single-degree-of-freedom vibration models of its suspension mechanism and foot buffer mechanism are developed, and the buffering mechanisms are analyzed and compared. Dynamics simulations and analysis are carried out in different terrains with the software ADAMS. The results show that the independent suspension system can adapt better to different terrains in robot motion than the foot buffer mechanism, and the design combining both the suspension system and the foot buffer mechanism has a better buffering function than the design with a single buffer mechanism.