Experimental performance assessment of mantis 2, hybrid leg-wheel mobile robot

Mantis 2 is a small-scale leg-wheel ground mobile robot, designed for exploration, surveillance and inspection tasks in unstructured environments. It is equipped with two actuated front wheels, two passive rear wheels, and two rotating legs with praying Mantis profile, specially conceived for step and obstacle climbing. Locomotion is purely wheeled on regular surfaces, with high energetic efficiency and maneuverability, and with stable camera vision. In case of obstacles or terrain irregularities, the rotating legs increase the motion capability. The main innovation of the second version is the introduction of passive one-way auxiliary wheels on each leg, which improve the efficacy of step climbing. The paper discusses analytical and experimental results on step ascent and descent and locomotion on irregular surfaces.