Ascento: A Two-Wheeled Jumping Robot

TL;DR

Ascento is a compact wheeled bipedal robot capable of high-speed movement and obstacle jumping, designed for indoor inspection tasks, with validated behaviors through experiments.

Contribution

This paper introduces Ascento, a novel two-wheeled jumping robot with integrated design and controllers for rapid navigation and obstacle overcoming in indoor environments.

Findings

Successfully demonstrated jumping over obstacles in realistic scenarios

Achieved high-speed movement on flat terrain

Validated control strategies through experiments

Abstract

Applications of mobile ground robots demand high speed and agility while navigating in complex indoor environments. These present an ongoing challenge in mobile robotics. A system with these specifications would be of great use for a wide range of indoor inspection tasks. This paper introduces Ascento, a compact wheeled bipedal robot that is able to move quickly on flat terrain, and to overcome obstacles by jumping. The mechanical design and overall architecture of the system is presented, as well as the development of various controllers for different scenarios. A series of experiments with the final prototype system validate these behaviors in realistic scenarios.