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ICRA 2026
Passive Torsional Compliance for Dynamic Stability Improvement of a Curved-Spoke Tri-Wheel
Sunbeom Jeong, Youngsoo Kim
AI summary
A passive torsional suspension significantly improves stair-climbing stability for curved-spoke tri-wheels, but only within specific speed and stiffness ranges.
Problem
Curved-spoke tri-wheels experience abrupt velocity drops and dynamic instability during stair climbing due to discontinuous contact transitions between spokes. This limits their reliable deployment in diverse environments requiring repeated step-to-step transitions.
Approach
The authors introduce a Compliant Spiral Torsional Suspension (C-STS) between the motor and wheel to store and release elastic energy, smoothing out velocity gaps during contact transitions.
Key results
- Reduced contact-transition deceleration by up to 23.7% at medium and high speeds with mid-stiffness suspension
- High-speed, high-stiffness configuration increased mean climbing velocity by 11.7% and reduced velocity variation by 17.5%
- Low-speed operation worsened stability by 30–37% due to premature spring energy release
- Performance critically depends on the interaction between motor speed, torsional stiffness, and mass-stiffness ratio
Why it matters
Provides actionable design guidelines for integrating passive compliance into specialized wheel mechanisms to enhance dynamic stability in stair-climbing robots.
Abstract
No abstract on file.