A deformable rolling robot based on 3-URU parallel mechanism

In this paper, a novel deformable rolling robot constructed by a 3-URU parallel mechanism is presented. The robot contains two equal node elements and three equal chains. Each of the chains is composed of two links and three joints (a revolute (R) in the middle of the chain and two universal (U) joints ant the two ends of the chain). The robot has 3 degrees of freedom, and three actuators are mounted at the three R joints to control the motion. By kinematics analysis, the robot can be folded into a narrow structure, which is useful for storing and carrying. Further, the rolling motion and gaits analysis are discussed and simulated with a 3D model. Finally, a prototype was manufactured and some experiments were carried out to verify the functions of the robot.