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A Contact-Maintaining Track Width Regulation Framework for Wheel-Legged Robots

delete2026-02-18
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PRE
AI
M
Maosen Wang
F
Fei Meng
Z
Zhihao Zhang
W
Wenyun He
陈学超 (Xuechao Chen)
余张国 (Zhangguo Yu)
黄强 (Qiang Huang)
DOI:10.1109/tmech.2026.3656265delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
When wheel-legged robots encounter obstacles such as collapsed deep pits or rocks, or need to avoid crushing critical objects, conventional approaches adjust the track width through leg-lifting maneuvers, which may compromise robot balance, reduce load capacity, and affect other performance metrics of robots. To simultaneously address track width regulation under such scenarios and mitigate the negative impacts of conventional approaches, this article proposes a contact-maintaining track width regulation (CTWR) framework. The framework integrates online posture-wheel coupled trajectory optimization with deformation-based whole-body control, enabling lateral track width adjustment without lifting legs. Compared to mainstream leg-lifting methods, the CTWR framework demonstrates well performance in effectively regulating track width while reducing maximum joint torque and peak power output. Experimental validation on real wheel-legged robots confirms not only the framework’s efficacy in crossing obstacles through track width adaptation, but also its contribution to enriching locomotion modes for wheel-legged robots.
Keywords:
Track width control
trajectory optimization
wheel-legged robots
whole-body dynamics control

Journal

I
IEEE-ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
IF:
7.3
Papers:
5.4K
Citations:
2.4W

Organization

B
beijing institute of technology
Scholars:
5.3W
Papers: 3.9W
Citations: 63
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