Original Design of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Exploration in Rough Terrain

This paper introduces an originally designed tracked robot. This robot belongs to the variable geometry single-tracked vehicle (VGSTV) category. Two active joints are used to control the shape of the vehicle and the tension of the tracks. Thus, it becomes possible to adapt the shape of the robot and the ground/robot contact points to the obstacle by controlling the joints. This paper presents some unmanned ground vehicle architectures followed by an analysis of the prototype performance (in comparison with other VGSTVs). A description of its dynamic model is also presented in order to introduce the computation of two balance criteria: center of gravity and zero moment point. Finally, the relevance of these criteria is compared by discussing experimental results in the case of staircase clearing

Evolutionnary Autonomous VGSTV Staircase Climbing

This paper introduces an originally designed tracked robot. This robot belongs to the VGSTV (Variable Geometry Single Tracked Vehicle) category, which is actually a sub-group of Variable Geometry Vehicles well represented by the iRobot Packbot. Those robots have been used several times for search and rescue mission and seems to be a real asset because of their clearing capability. After a brief categorization, technical specification of our robot are presented and geometrical and dynamical models are computed in order to compare static and dynamic balance. Then, thanks to the results of the balance study, an autonomous staircase clearing controller based on artificial neural network is computed and tested. A general conclusion about possible improvements and future work ends the paper

A behavioural repertoire of the adult Houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata macquenii)

Présentation d'un éthogramme détaillé de l'outarde Houbara (sous espèce macqueenii). 80 comportements sont représentés, ils ont été regroupés en 8 catégories: comportements de repos, de confort, locomoteur, d'alimentation, sociaux, sexuels, d'incubation et de soins aux jeunes, ainsi que quelques comportements à finalité non évidente. Une attention particulière est prêtée aux parades sexuelles des mâles dont l'aspect et le déroulement semble indiquer une différence vis à vis de celles des mâles de deux autres sous-espèces (undulata et fuertaventurae

Variable Geometry Tracked Vehicle, description, model and behavior

This paper presents a prototype of tracked UGV (Unmanned Grounded Vehicles) called B2P2. This tele-operated robot has been designed to intervene in unstructured environments like for example battlefield or after an earthquake. This robot based on an original system of multiple articulations can be classified into the VGTV (Variable Geometry Tracked Vehicle) category. The proposed concept allows the robot to adapt its shape in order to increase its clearing capability. Unlike existing robots, the tension of the caterpillars is actively controlled and can be turned off to increase the robot/ground contact surface needed for some special kind of obstacles. After a short state of the art, the paper presents the detailed architecture of the robot. The third part introduces the geometric model of the robot followed by the control algorithm used to tense or release the caterpillars. The behavior of the robot over several obstacles (staircase, curb and bumper) is analyzed and the necessity of releasing the tracks is discussed