A Multi-Terrain Robot Prototype With Archimedean Screw Actuators: Design, Realization, Modeling, and Control

This work introduces a robot prototype designed to explore locomotion, perception, and navigation in unstructured terrains. The focus of this paper is on the robot’s locomotion, from concept design to realization, as well as modelling and control. The robot’s locomotion system, comprising four individually controlled archimedean screw actuators, allows holonomic planar motion control. Testing on various yielding and hard grounds has demonstrated the system’s efficacy. Additionally, 3-DOF kinematic and dynamic models were developed for pose estimation, control allocation, and numerical simulations on various terrains. Although dynamic models of archimedean screw locomotion systems have been proposed in the past, they have not been used for motion control or pose estimation. Experimental validation of the dynamic model demonstrates good performance for pose estimation, providing potential for future work on online model identification and model-based control. Furthermore, a trajectory tracking control scheme was evaluated on two distinct terrains, revealing valuable insights into the effectiveness and limitations of the proposed locomotion and trajectory tracking control scheme, and highlighting areas for future research.