Robot Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Illustrated - Profe Saul

Given the definition of robot in the introduction to this book, the most
vital mechanical part of a robot must be its mobility system, including
the suspension and drivetrain, and/or legs and feet. The ability of the
these systems to effectively traverse what ever terrain is required is paramount
to the success of the robot, but to my knowledge, there has never
been an apples to apples comparison of mobility systems.
First, just what is a mobility system? A mobility system is all parts of
a vehicle, a land-based robot for the purposes of this book, that aid in
locomoting from one place to another. This means all motors, gearboxes,
suspension pieces, transmissions, wheels, tires, tracks, springs, legs, foot
pads, linkages, mechanisms for moving the center of gravity, mechanisms
for changing the shape or geometry of the vehicle, mechanisms for
changing the shape or geometry of the drivetrain, mechanisms and linkages
for steering, etc., are parts of mobility systems.
The systems and mechanisms described in this book are divided into
four general categories: wheeled, tracked, walkers, and special cases.
Each gets its own chapter, and following the chapter on special cases is a
separate chapter devoted to comparing the effectiveness of many of the
systems.
There are some that are described in the text that are not discussed in
Chapter Nine. These are mostly very interesting designs that are worth
describing, but their mobility or some other trait precludes comparing
them to the other designs. Most of the systems discussed in Chapter
Eight fall into this category because they are designed to move through
very specific environments and are not general enough to be comparable.
Some wheeled designs are discussed simply because they are very simple
even though their mobility is limited. This chapter deals with
wheeled systems, everything from one-wheeled vehicles to eightwheeled
vehicles. It is divided into four sections: vehicles with one to
three wheels and four-wheeled diamond layouts, four- and five-wheeled
layouts, six-wheeled layouts, and eight-wheeled layouts.
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