B2P2 project

Philippe Lucidarme, Jean-Luc Paillat and Laurent Hardouin.

LISA (Laboratoire des Systèmes Automatisés)
62 avenue notre Dame du Lac
49000 Angers, France

Description

B2P2 is a Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UVG). It belongs to the Variable Geometry Single Tracked Vehicle (VGSTV) category. The robot is based on an original mechanical architecture: it can change its shape according to the obstacle it has to pass through. This robot has been designed to increase its clearing capabilities. It is able to pass through a wide range of obstacles like stairs, ramps, bumps, curbs... This remotely-controlled robot can also explore buildings in order to assure some recognitions. It is equipped with a video camera, a 2.4Ghz wireless transmission allows to visualize the pictures captured by the robot from afar. A compass and a GPS sensor are embedded in order to obtain posutre information. Sensor are used to control the robot posture and provide unseful information to the operator. Computer PC 104 is embedded to supervise control and commuication. Microcontrollers are used to localy control the DC motor.

Videos

The following video shows the evaluation of the robot performances in the field. Trial has been made in the context of the UGV contest organized by the french army (ETAS/DGA, Angers) in 2006.




The following video shows robot during the getting over of a curb:




The following video shows robot climbing and going down stairs:




The following video shows autonomous staircase climbing based on evolutionnary neural networks:

Publications and reports

[26k] J.L Paillat, P. Lucidarme, L. Hardouin (2010) Original design of Unmanned Grounded Vehicle (UGV) for exploration in rough terrain, Advanced Robotics 24, pp. 255–276.
[69k] J.L Paillat, P. Lucidarme, L. Hardouin (2009) Mechanical constants for B2P2 platform , Internal report.
[346k] J.L Paillat, P. Lucidarme, L. Hardouin (2009) B2P2 modeling and balance criterion computation, Internal report.
[1.6M] J.L Paillat, P. Lucidarme, L. Hardouin (2008) Variable Geometry Tracked Vehicle, description, model and behavior , Mecatronics 2008, 21-23 May 2008, Paper #130.
[965k] J.L Paillat, P. Lucidarme, L. Hardouin (2008) Variable Geometry tracked Vehicle (VGTV) prototype : conception, capability and problems , HUMOUS'08, Brest 3-4 september 2008.