A Small Intelligent Amphibious Robot: Design, Analysis and Experiment

Compared with traditional robots, amphibious robots can move and work in a variety of different environment conditions. This is very important for complex tasks, such as resource exploration, payload transport, life rescue, and so on. In this paper, a small intelligent amphibious robot is developed and experimented. It has two main movement modes: car-like movement on the land and boat-like movement on the water. This amphibious robot is composed of mechanical sub-system, electrical sub-system and sensor sub-system. The mechanical part is designed based on a crank rocker mechanism. Combined with gear and belt transmission, two movement modes can be changed by a mechanical switch. To analyze the mobility, the kinematics equation is derived using algebraic method. Furthermore, the dynamics model is created using ADAMS software. The drive performances, including the forces and torques, are analyzed through mathematical simulation. Voice sensor, wireless module and infrared sensor are mounted on the robot. The embedded controller is developed to realize the automatic obstacle avoidance. The robot can be controlled by voice, heat source and remote-control device. Finally, the prototype is fabricated. Based on the developed prototype, typical experiments are conducted. The results verified the functions and performance of the developed robot.