Development Report:
Development of Multi-Articulated Tracked Vehicle with a Sensorless Salvaging Bucket for Decommissioning
Junji Hirasawa, Shun Isobe, Yusuke Kuramochi, Mitsuhiro Nishino, and Yoshihisa Nihei
National Institute of Technology, Ibaraki College
866 Nakane, Hitachinaka-shi, Ibaraki 312-0011, Japan
In this paper, we describe a prototypical crawler vehicle developed for “Hairo Sozo Robocon,” i.e., the 4th creative robot contest for decommissioning conducted in 2019. The rules of this robot contest required a high turning ability on a flat floor and high mobility through the inner space of a pipe. In addition, the robot needed to salvage objects from a floor placed 3.2 meters underneath itself. We developed a multi-articulated tracked vehicle to provide high mobility in both contexts. The vehicle was equipped with a sensorless salvaging bucket inspired by a traditional sampler sounding weight.
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