Modeling and Simulation of a Pneumatically-Actuated Rescue Robot

Abstract

A four-legged pneumatically actuated search and rescue robot is presented as a system with potentially enhanced versatility relative to existing rescue robots. The usage of fluid powered actuation, combined with tele-operation of the robot via an operator workstation, enables the twelve degree of freedom robot to better manipulate large objects. A simulation is developed to enable ease of design variation and implementation testing in difficult virtual terrains. The simulation consists of an actuator model, modeled in Simulink, which is interfaced with an open-source dynamic simulation. The simulation calculates the robot dynamics based on actuator inputs. Where previous research has focused on the development of simulation kinematics and simple actuator models, this paper discusses development of a friction model for improved fidelity of the simulator, as well as implementation and verification in the dynamic model. The balance between model performance and the level of realism required for system development is found and discussed.