RESEARCH ARTICLE

A pneumatic cylinder driving polyhedron mobile mechanism

  • Wan DING 1 ,
  • Sung-Chan KIM 2 ,
  • Yan-An YAO , 1
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  • 1. School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
  • 2. Science Institute, Pyongyang Railway University, Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Received date: 13 Oct 2011

Accepted date: 20 Nov 2011

Published date: 05 Mar 2012

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

A novel pneumatic cylinder driving polyhedron mobile mechanism is proposed in this paper. The mechanism is comprised of 5 tetrahedrons which includes a pneumatic cylinder in each edge. It locomotes by rolling and the rolling principle refers to the center of mass (CM) of the mechanism moved out of the supporting area and let it tip over through the controlling of the motion sequence of these cylinders. Firstly, the mathematical model is built to analysis the relation between the configuration and the CM of the mechanism. Then, a binary control strategy is developed to simplify and improve the control of this mobile mechanism. After that, dynamic simulation is performed to testify the analytical validity and feasibility of the rolling gaits. At last, a prototype is fabricated to achieve the rolling successfully to demonstrate the proposed concept.

Cite this article

Wan DING , Sung-Chan KIM , Yan-An YAO . A pneumatic cylinder driving polyhedron mobile mechanism[J]. Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering, 0 , 7(1) : 55 -65 . DOI: 10.1007/s11465-012-0301-z

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Scientific Foundation of Beijing Jiaotong University (2011JBM277, 2011YJS264). The Open Project Program of Key Lab of Shanghai Spacecraft Mechanism, China (06DZ22105 ).
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