Remote control based hybrid-structure robot design for home security applications

Non-industrial Robot applications are getting more popular than ever. Moving capability is one of the most important features of non-industrial robots. In general, the movements of non-industrial robots are categorized as wheeled and legged mechanical platforms. The wheeled platform performs stable and fast movement characteristics; however, it can not move on humpy grounds or cross small doorsills. Contrarily, the legged platform performs better adaptations to different types of ground conditions; nevertheless, the walking velocity and stability and the larger energy consumptions restrict the practical applications. In this paper, we present a hybridstructure robot with humanoid and vehicle types to perform home security tasks. To achieve home security issues, the smoke and temperature detection sensors are mounted on the robot. At the same time, the CCD camera is mounted on the head of robot to capture the guarded videos and to assist remote manipulations. The security robot is controlled remotely in terms of wireless manner. The proposed hybrid-structure robot behaves vehicle type in most of operation time to perform stable and fast movements and to reduce energy consumptions. When the robot enters humpy grounds or crosses small doorsills, the robot structure is changed as humanoid type to pass the non-flat grounds. Therefore, the proposed hybrid-structure security robot provides flexible adaptations to different types of ground conditions in home. Due to size limitations, the security robot can be used in regular apartments. Finally, a 50 cm in height security robot prototype is implemented in laboratory. The robot had been successfully tested for legged walking, wheeled driving, changing structures, cross small doorsills, remote manipulations, and remote monitoring of security functions.