Design And Development of Umnmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) With Spherical Wheels

Abstract

An unmanned ground vehicle is a mobile robot that moves around without any human and it is generally remote operated. The UGV's chassis is constructed from lightweight yet durable materials, allowing for ease of transport and deployment in various environments. The UGV's modular design allows for easy customization and integration of additional sensors and payloads. Its quality of being light weight and compact makes it highly desirable to be used in missions that involve high levels of risk and danger like surveillance, inspection, reconnaissance. Since previous models of UGVs consisted of two or four wheels, the limitation lied in the maneuverability of the robot. Our project was aimed to design and develop a prototype of UGV which was omni directional. Spherical wheels, introduced as new type of omni-wheels were designed, 3D printed, and the rest of the body was manufactured keeping in mind to keep the robot lightweight as possible. The wheels had an active rotational component as well as a passive one. Complete calculations and analysis of the wheels were done using ANSYS and the research was concluded with suggestions of materials that could be used for the manufacturing of wheels on an industrial scale to make the robot throwable.