Design, Development & Evaluation of a Prototype Tracked Mobile Robot for Difficult Terrain

This paper reports the design, development and evaluation of a prototype tracked mobile robot for task execution in both natural and human-made environments with stair climbing feature. First, different types of locomotion systems used for mobile robots are compared and their pros and cons are presented. Then the mechanism designed for the prototype tracked mobile robot is described with the aid of a CAD model. Finally, the results of field testing of the actual robot are presented and the behavior of tracked mobile robots in presence of slippage is discussed.