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JRM Vol.37 No.2 pp. 489-499
doi: 10.20965/jrm.2025.p0489
(2025)

Paper:

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A Mobile Quad-Arm Robot ARMS: Wheeled-Legged Tripedal Locomotion and Loco-Manipulation

Hisayoshi Muramatsu, Keigo Kitagawa, Jun Watanabe, Yuika Yoshimoto, and Ryohei Hisashiki

Mechanical Engineering Program, Hiroshima University
1-4-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8527, Japan

Received:
August 7, 2024
Accepted:
September 25, 2024
Published:
April 20, 2025
Creative Commons License
Keywords:
hybrid locomotion, loco-manipulation, wheeled-legged robots, legged robots, wheeled robots
Abstract

This paper proposes a mobile quad-arm robot, ARMS, that unifies wheeled-legged tripedal locomotion, wheeled locomotion, and loco-manipulation. ARMS’s four arms have different mechanical configurations for hybrid locomotion and loco-manipulation and are partially designed to be general-purpose arms. The one three-degree-of-freedom (DOF) arm has an active wheel that is used for wheeled-legged tripedal walking and wheeled driving with passive wheels attached to the torso. The two three-DOF general-purpose arms are series elastic and are used for wheeled-legged tripedal walking, object grasping, and manipulation. The upper two-DOF arm is used for manipulation only, and its position and orientation are determined by coordinating all the arms. Each motor is controlled using an angle controller and trajectory modification with angle, angular velocity, angular acceleration, and torque constraints. The capabilities of ARMS were verified with seven experiments involving joint control, wheeled-legged locomotion, wheeled locomotion and grasping, slope locomotion, block terrain locomotion, carrying a bag, and outdoor locomotion.

Mobile quad-arm robot: ARMS

Mobile quad-arm robot: ARMS

Cite this article as:
H. Muramatsu, K. Kitagawa, J. Watanabe, Y. Yoshimoto, and R. Hisashiki, “A Mobile Quad-Arm Robot ARMS: Wheeled-Legged Tripedal Locomotion and Loco-Manipulation,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.37 No.2, pp. 489-499, 2025.
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